Dec. 15, 1925 
Studies in Western Yellow Pine Nursery Practice 1109 
METHODS OF SOWING SEED 
SUMMARY 
Sowing in long open drills permits pruning of roots in place and 
facilitates cultivation. Because of the economy of space and time, 
broadcast sowing has been generally adopted at the Savenac and 
Boulder nurseries. 
The experiments at Priest River in 1913-14 show, from the stand¬ 
point of economy of seed, that the evidence is consistently in favor 
of broadcast sowing. This method produced highest germination, 
highest survival, and best development of the plants. 
Because of the lack of facilities for large-scale production, it was 
impossible to investigate accurately the difference in economy of 
time and space between broadcast and drill sowing. These ques¬ 
tions have, however, already been worked out at the Savenac nur¬ 
sery, with results in favor of broadcasting for northern Rocky Moun¬ 
tain conditions. It may, therefore, be definitely concluded that for 
conditions in this region where watering is not possible, and where it 
is not necessary to cultivate between the rows to conserve moisture, 
yellow pine seed should be sown broadcast. 
PROCEDURE 
The principal experiment in this series was identical with that 
carried on at the Priest River station in 1913 in the depth-of-cover 
study in the Meadow nursery. It is therefore unnecessary to repeat 
the description of operation already given. 
In order to obtain data on the effect of fall sowing upon methods, 
two more beds were sown in the Meadow nursery in the fall of 1913. 
No. 1 was sown broadcast and No. 2 in drills, using the same seed 
used in the spring-sowing experiment, covered with clean sand to a 
depth of %-inch after careful spading and preparation of the beds. 
Protection and watering were as for spring sowing. Six represent¬ 
ative areas, 1 foot square in the broadcast bed and one drill in the 
drilled bed, were selected for intensive counts which were made week¬ 
ly during 1914. 
DATA 
The results of the 1913 spring-sown study at Priest River have 
already been assembled in Figures 1 and 2 and Table III. The 
summary of Table III has been prepared to show contrasts due to 
differences in method of sowing rather than depth of cover. Refer¬ 
ence is made to these data, in regard to the essential points brought 
out, as follows: 
(1) Germination in the broadcast plots was consistently greater 
than in the drilled plots, or 25 per cent more for all depths. 
For the three shallower depths, however, the average of the broad¬ 
cast plots was only 5 per cent greater, so that for the depths which 
will be used in practice the advantage over the drills is very slight. 
The greater difference in the deeper sowings was due perhaps to the 
fact that the cover on the three broadcast plots was decreased some¬ 
what by watering, thus probably increasing the germination. 
(2) During the first month germination in the drilled plots was 
more rapid. By the middle of July the broadcast plots were in the 
lead in point of numbers. It evidently takes the seedlings in the 
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