FOREST NURSERIES AND NURSERY METHODS IN EUROPE. 235 



item in the business. Still, in order to satisfy customers, official tests are also 

 obtained by prominent dealers. A seed house in Knittelsheim advertises that its 

 collections are tested for "purity and germination" by the "Swiss Control Office 

 for the Examination of Seeds," at Zurich, Switzerland. 



Foresters who gather seed for use in their own nurseries have various well- 

 known tests of a simple character to determine its value. But there are several 

 government stations to which samples of stock may be sent to be tested and to 

 determine the percentage of germination. The principal ones are located at 

 Eberswalde and Tharandt, in Germany; Zurich, in Switzerland, and Mariabrunn, 

 in Austria. 



These official tests enable the nursery manager to avoid any loss caused by sowing 

 worthless grains, to protect himself against fraud on the part of unscrupulous 

 dealers and to determine the quantity that should be sown. 



If a report is needed immediately from the station, a number of seeds are cut 

 open and examined for color, plumpness, taste, odor, etc. For example, the 

 kernel of the beech and the chestnut, if all right, is white and very pleasant 

 to the taste; that of the oak is reddish white; the maple, green; the ash, white 

 and waxy ; pine, white with a strong odor of turpentine. Coniferous seeds are 

 crushed with the finger nail upon a piece of white paper, upon which a good seed 

 leaves an oily stain. 



If time permit the seeds may be actually germinated. The larger sorts, such 

 as the oak seeds, are placed in vessels filled with earth, covered the proper depth, 

 kept moist and at a temperature favorable to germination. Conifer seeds are 

 placed between folds of flannel which are dipped into water kept at a medium 

 temperature. There are also several forms of porous vessels made specially for 

 such tests. 



It is hoped that the descriptions given in the foregoing pages, together with 

 the illustrations accompanying them, may be useful in calling public attention 

 to the practical value of planted forests. In America the reforesting of denuded 

 lands by artificial means — the formation of planted forests — is a question that 

 sooner or later will confront our foresters. The student, on graduating from a 

 forestry school, should supplement his course of study with a trip abroad in 

 order to see the plantations there and the nurseries which are an indispensable 

 adjunct to this particular system of forestry. 



