16 BULLETIN 13, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Germination or Seed and Growth of Seedlings. 
When fresh, from 70 to 90 per cent of white-pine seeds are fertile, 
and under favorable conditions will germinate. With unfavorable 
conditions, however, the mortality is very great. Much of the seed, 
either while in the cone or after it falls to the ground, is consumed by 
birds and rodents. Of the seeds which escape destruction by ani- 
mals, many die through falling on unfavorable sites. After germi- 
nation seeds need, for example, a certain amount of moisture, though 
too much will cause them to decay- Seeds which fall during dry 
seasons may he dormant until the next year, provided they are not 
destroyed in the meantime. When properly stored, white-pine seeds 
can be kept for five years or more without great loss, but under natural 
conditions it is probable that only a very small proportion ever germi- 
nate after the second spring following their ripening. Quantities of 
pine seed are destroyed by forest fires, which may burn, the cones on 
the trees or destroy the seed after it has fallen. When drought and 
forest fires follow the falling of seed during an off" year, nearly the 
wiiole of the crop may be lost. 
Germination takes place, as a rule, in the spring, and in practically 
every kind of soil with sufficient heat and moisture. If the young 
seedling is to five, its roots must soon, find the mineral soil. Young 
plants which spring up on insufficiently decomposed leaf litter are 
almost sure to die. 
Seedlings thrive in soil which is at once moist, porous, and well 
drained. Sandy or loamy soils, well mixed with decayed organic 
matter, and protected by vegetation or leaf litter, meet these require- 
ments. Should the soil dry out even to the slight depth to which 
the roots of the seedlings have penetrated, a great many of the young 
trees will die. 
To determine the effect of moisture conditions upon the death rate of 
seedlings during the first two years of lif e, nine sample plots were marked 
out in 1909 near Petersham, Mass., in dry, fresh to moist, and wet 
situations. The dry situations were either entirely unshaded or only 
partially shaded by underbrush, and had from 2 to 3 inches of pine or 
else from 4 to 5 inches of broadleaf fitter. The fresh to moist situations 
w'ere well drained, lightly shaded, some bare of pine litter, and others 
with a cover up to 3 inches in depth. The wet situations were low, 
poorly drained bottom lands on which water stood during a part of 
the spring. The average number of seedlings on the plots in 1909 
was : In the dry situations 29, in the fresh to moist 60, and in the wet 
14. When counted in 1910 the proportion still alive in the dry situ- 
ations was 53 per cent, and in the fresh to moist 86 per cent, while in 
the wet none had survived. 
As long as the young roots extend but a few inches into the ground 
the character of the subsoil makes little difference; but as the roots 
