20 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XI, No. i 
to yield higher germination during the third season than during the first 
and second seasons combined. In the Wind River Nursery seed bed, 
germination of Douglas fir has continued through three seasons. West¬ 
ern white pine has often produced better germination during the second 
season after sowing, even under the best germinating conditions. 1 
Juniper is difficult to germinate without special treatment. To some 
extent the rate of germination in nursery seed beds is controlled by the 
depth of soil cover. 
With conditions such as these obtaining in regular nursery practice, 
it is not at all surprising that germination should be delayed under the 
forest cover. The cool shaded layers of leaf mold and general duff of the 
forest floor, which in the virgin Cascade forests seldom feel the warmth 
of the sun, constitute an ideal natural storage medium. Under con¬ 
ditions so unfavorable to germination and so favorable to its retardation, 
it can easily be imagined that the germination of forest tree seeds can be 
delayed to the limits of their various powers of dormancy. 
On the Columbia burn, owing to the probability of seed accumulation 
for several years and to the possibility of there having been a general 
seed year just previous to the fire, it was not possible to determine 
absolutely how long the seed lay dormant. However, from the year of 
the fire until the date of germination (deduced from the age of seedlings 
found) the various species showed unquestionably the following periods 
of delayed germination : 2 
Years. 
Years. 
Douglas fir. 6 
Noble fir. 3 
Silver fir. 5 
Western hemlock. 6 
Western white pine. 6 
Pacific yew. 10 
Dwarf juniper. 10 
Delayed germination is believed to explain the proportions of age 
classes of the reproduction found in the open burns. Occasionally, 
however, single seedlings from 1 to 4 or 5 years old were found growing 
at great distances from seed trees in the midst of uniformly older repro¬ 
duction. The presence of these “erratics” was at first a disturbing 
element, until it was decided that their presence could be accounted 
for by some one of the factors generally conceded to be responsible for 
the occurrence of scattered individuals of a species far beyond the nor¬ 
mal range of that species, such as the occurrence of occasional western 
1 In this connection attention may well be called to the delayed germination experienced at the Feather 
River Forest Experiment Station and the Pilgrim Creek Nursery in California with the seeds of redwood 
{Sequoia sempervirens [Eamb] Emil.), white fir, incense cedar (Libocedrus decurrens Torn), and sugar pine 
{Pirms lambertiana Dougl.) when sown in the nursery. Often the second season has produced more 
germination than the first, when the seeds were spring sown. 
According to Mr. S. B. $ 3 how, seed spotting in northern California with sugar pine, Jeffrey pine (Pinus 
jejjreyi), and western yellow pine has produced very little or no germination the first season, whereas the 
second season a number of seedlings were found in the seed spots, and sugar pine has produced a good stand 
from germination the third season after sowing. 
a The ability of seed to retain its viability is shown further by the results of Beal (1-5); Ewart (6); 
Harrington (7); Nobbe and Haenlein (8); Rees (9); and others, although their work was not with forest- 
tree seed. 
Reference is made by number to "literature cited," p. 26. 
