REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST I913 63 



the garden and outplanted in rows the same distance apart and on 

 uniform soil, Scotch pine from Hungarian seed, French seed, 

 Belgian seed, Finnish seed and native Pfalzian seed. The experi- 

 ment is now twelve years old and may be briefly summarized as 

 follows : 



The Hungarian pines show many failures, a heavy death rate, 

 many of wolfy, unsymmetrical and uneven rate of growth, frequent 

 loss of top shoots, not uniform, unhealthy in color, averaging 

 slightly over 3 feet in height. 



The French pines are darker in color and more healthy in ap- 

 pearance, but show, nevertheless, many failures and a strong in- 

 clination to grow wolfy and unsymmetrical. They average about 5 

 feet in height. 



The Belgian pines form a stand particularly dense and in which 

 there are practically no failures. The trees are now 11 to 13 feet 

 tall and have fully conquered the soil. A carpet of needles has 

 begun to form beneath them and they are self-pruning their lower 

 branches. This stand is the darkest green of all. 



The Pfalzian pines, from seed gathered nearby, average about 

 11 or 12 feet in height, with very little death rate, are dark green 

 and healthy, but owing to the vigor of growth there has been a 

 little snowbreak. They seem to differ in no important particular 

 from the Belgian trees unless they are a little more symmetrical and 

 slightly shorter. 



The Finnish pines are of a uniform light yellow color, averaging 

 about 4 feet in height with considerable death rate. The needles 

 are short and the whole appearance of the stand indicates slow yet 

 uniform and symmetrical growth, which are the features to be ex- 

 pected from pines coming from a region with so short a growing 

 season as Finland. 



The results of this interesting experiment are already forecasted, 

 and they show that seed for forest planting should come from a 

 source with a climate, at least, similar to that in which the seeds 

 are to be grown, especially if it be a species with as wide a climatic 

 range as the Scotch pine. 



Future visitors to this range will also be interested in the experi- 

 ments recently started with seed from (1) crooked, (2) wolfy, (3) 

 symmetrical mature, and (4) young trees, to determine whether the 

 parentage has any influence on the progeny in the transmission of 

 such characters as crookedness, unsymmetrical growth, vigor etc. 



Fully as interesting as these experiments, especially to the 

 American visitor, is the famous I [acke stand of white pine 120 years 



