Germination of Forest Trees ji 
Briefly stated the purpose of the present investigation is to 
inquire into the effect of the more important habitat and seed 
factors upon the germination and early development of certain 
American forest trees in control cultures in the greenhouse for the 
purpose of obtaining data that may be used in the silvicultural 
management of these species. 
This investigation has been conducted under the direction of 
Professor Raymond J. Pool and I am indebted to him for his 
friendly advice and counsel. I am especially grateful to him for 
having read the first draft of this paper and for offering valuable 
criticisms and suggestions. I wish to further acknowledge my 
indebtedness to Professors P. B. Barker and H. J. Young of the 
department of agronomy of the College of Agriculture for the 
mechanical analyses of the soils used in these experiments and to 
various members of the departments of botany and geology for the 
many courtesies extended to me. Thanks are due to the various 
district foresters, forest supervisors, and rangers, also members 
of the Washington office of the Forest Service for their kindness 
in furnishing so much of the seed used in these investigations. 
Without this material assistance a large part of this work would 
have been impossible. Grateful acknowledgment is also due to 
my wife for much valuable assistance in counting seeds, in com- 
piling the final data and in reading proof. Also, I cannot fail 
to acknowledge the guidance and inspiration of the late Dr. 
Charles E. Bessey throughout the course of these studies. 
PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS 
Historical 
The literature of the work done upon this problem is meager 
and widely scattered. As has been noted before, both botanists 
and foresters have worked in this field, so that papers from 
widely different sources had to be considered. General observa- 
tions were found to be much more numerous than results based 
upon exact investigations. Too often one finds opinions and 
views upon these questions with but very little data to substantiate 
