F. W. SCHUMACHER 
Jamaica Plain, Mass. 
THE TRUTH ABOUT SCOTCH PINE SEED 
The truth about good Scotch Pine seed was first learned by German foresters about 
one hundred and fifty years ago. It was in Prussia when King Frederick the Great had 
large areas of land claimed from swamps with pine forests to be planted. Pine seed 
at that time being available only from France, where the nursery craft and the art of 
propagating garden plants had originated, French Pine seed was brought to Prussia, 
and the seedlings obtained were planted out in the sandy soil of the forests to be. The 
plantings, after a while, proved to be a complete failure. Trees grew dwarfish, quite 
unlike the native Pine which grows into tall beautiful trees. A lesson was learned and 
for further plantings native pine seed was used. 
It seems to be true that Scotch Pine wherever it grows on deep sandy soil, developing 
a tap root, penetrating deeply to water level, forms a tall vigorous tree. On the other 
hand, on shallow or stony soil in mountainous sections, trees become shrubby or even 
dwarf in nature. Scotch Pine has as many variations as has its cousin, the Mountain 
Pine, of which the Mugho Pine is a dwarf variety. It was the writer’s good fortune, 
during the years of the World War, to travel far and wide in the Scotch Pine belt in 
Northern Europe from West to East. There were found beautiful forests of tall growing 
Scotch Pines in the sand land sections of Northern France, Belgium, Holland, Northern 
Germany, and immense forests in the Baltic Provinces around Riga and south through 
the sandy plains of Poland to Galizia and White Russia. 
After state foresters in Prussia had found by experience that seed from their native 
forests was the best obtainable, they started to select forests of the old indigenous race 
of Pine for seed collection. Many private land owners accepted these experiences, and 
a movement started to governmentally approve and issue certificates for forests privately 
owned of the true local race of Pine trees in Prussia. This step was a protective movement; 
made in order to preserve the superiority of the local tree-race and prevent interbreeding 
with planted trees, grown from uncontrolled seed sources. There were no actual tree¬ 
breeding experiments involved in this movement, no selections made other than removing 
inferior trees, the whole act being merely a wise preservation of the indigenous natural 
forest resources. May it be said at this opportunity, tree “breeding” has no field in 
practical forestry. Where it comes to build resistance to the destructive forces of winds, 
winter blizzards, sleet storms in our northern climate, men will not succeed to breed 
better trees than mother nature has made in thousands of years of selection. 
The most expensive Pine seed comes from Germany, but this does not mean that 
Pine seed from farther east, which is often less expensive, is of inferior quality. The 
greatest natural Pine forests of clean straight timber in Europe are unquestionably 
beyond the German border in Poland and Western Russia, and for conditions in the 
Northern United States it is of little consequence if Scotch Pine seed comes from eastern 
Germany, Northern Poland, or the Baltic Provinces. German seed is very expensive 
and at times unobtainable. The very best German seed from pedigreed forests costs 
$6.00 to $8.00 and more in Germany. 
The cost of production for any kind of Scotch Pine is about the same. All seed 
must be picked by hand directly from the trees as there are no cone cutting squirrels 
in the Pine forests of Northern Europe. We had been the first seed house to emphasize 
the importance of Pine seed collected from a tall timber race, and have imported a 
good grade of seed from Prussia since 1926. We have been selling this seed at around 
$3.00 a pound, at which price a good quality suitable for all conditions in Northern 
United States can be secured. 
As large German reforestation projects are under way, German seed is, and will 
remain, expensive for some time to come. Under such circumstances, we think it 
advisable to enlarge our area of supply for Pine seed and will in the future supply it 
from a sector covering a circle of about five hundred miles around Koenigsberg, the 
most easterly large town in Germany. Our this year’s supply comes from the Polish 
corridor, from forests planted and cared for by German Foresters before this territory 
was ceded to Poland. Our best Pine seed collected from the straight timber race of 
North-Eastern Europe will be offered henceforth under the name “Straight Timber 
Scotch Pine.” 
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