niS HAKVKSTING Fit I ITS AND SEKDS UF FOUKST TREES 



latir iippcarani-e depends on the species, nature of the locality, 

 amount ot light received and the individual healthiness of the 

 tree. 



Good quality and ^fenninative power of seed is usually 

 assoeiuted with vigorous middle-age, and thou^^jh generally, in 

 the case of many trees, the seed of very old trees (heech), or of 

 very young ones (larch), are either of little value, or the trees 

 altogether lose their fertility when very old (spruce at 130 to 

 140 years), yet there are several species to which this rule does 

 not apply. Acorns of 300 years old oaks are often as good as 

 those of younger trees, whilst the seed plucked from Scotch 

 pines, 10 to 15, and even 8 years old, is often hetter than that 

 from older trees. Independently of the species, the nature of 

 the locality aftects matters so that poor soils and slow growth 

 hasten fertility, even though seed-production always presupposes 

 a sufficient supply of nutrition in the soil (fine humus), chiefly 

 of phosphoric acid. Above all, the local amount of heat 

 is decisive, trees growing at high altitudes producing only a 

 scanty supply of fruit ; at the limit of vegetation of mountain- 

 trees (for instance, the larch), only at the most vigorous period 

 of growth is any fruit produced. Light is also requisite for 

 hlossoming, trees growing with expanded crowns fructifying, 

 therefore, earlier and more abundantly than those growing in a 

 dense wood. 



Seed may be sufliciently good to germinate, but possessed of 

 so small an amount of reserve-nutriment that it may be untit to 

 produce vigorous plants. 



The productiveness of fruit by German forest trees has 

 considerably diminished of late, and this seriously interferes 

 with the natural reproduction of woods. The cause of this 

 change is chiefly to be ascribed to the even-aged high forest 

 system ; for slender, drawn-up, crowded trees tend to produce 

 wood rather than fruit. 



The general state of fertility of a woody species, however, 

 depends cliielly on the (question whether seed-years are frequent 

 or the reverse. Some trees only fructiiy after stated intervals, 

 whilst others are irregular in this respect; in some cases 

 several years may pass between successive seed-years, in others, 

 the trees bear fruit everv vear. The nature of the soil and 



