Germination of Forest Trees 75 



bear on the whole grains of a greater weight. Walls (37), work- 

 ing upon the size of the grain and the germ of corn, concludes 

 that the heaviest grains do not necessarily have the best ger- 

 minating qualities and that plants from the heaviest grains attain 

 the greatest weight, other conditions being favorable. Concern- 

 ing the size of the germ he finds that the germinating properties 

 of the kernels containing different sizes of germs may be equal ; 

 that the largest, hardiest, and most vigorous plants come from the 

 kernels with the large germs; and that the plants from the 

 kernels with the largest germs withstand the drought best. He 

 says in the selection of corn, in order to insure a good stand and 

 a large yield none but the large germed kernels should be used. 



Harris (33, 34, 35) working on the differential mortality with 

 respect to seed weight of beans and peas secured similar results, 

 though in a different way. In the case of peas about 1,000 seeds 

 from each of ten early varieties were weighed and planted. In 

 seven cases out of ten the total weights of the seeds which ger- 

 minated was higher than the total weights of the seeds which did 

 not germinate. Cummings (38) worked with numerous kinds of 

 garden seeds. He quotes numerous investigators who worked on 

 corn, oats, wheat, sugar beets, cotton, and beans and practically 

 all the results show an increased yield through the use of large 

 seeds. He himself worked with squash, pumpkin, lettuce, 

 spinach, parsley, radishes, beans, garden peas, and sweet peas. 

 Here too the results were almost without exception in favor of 

 the large seeds. Not only were the resulting yields larger and 

 heavier but in most cases the yield was earlier. In the case of 

 the radishes the large seeds produced more uniform crops one 

 week earlier than the small seeds. Sweet peas showed earlier 

 blossoming, a larger total yield of blossoms and a larger number 

 of blossoms of good quality. On the whole the permanent ad- 

 vantages accruing from large seeds are a larger and greater 

 number of leaves, flowers and fruits. 



Present Investigations 



Having on hand several climatic varieties each of Pinus pou- 

 derosa and Pseudotsuga taxifolia, I was prepared to determine 



