THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
117 
pine, have a sharp peak, and these culminate at the 15 
per cent point. Lodgepole pine has a long range of op¬ 
timum values, from 15.0 to 27.5 per cent, though the 
germination per cent itself is low. The germination of 
white fir shows a much slower rise than the pines al¬ 
though the falling off is equally rapid. 
By a comparison of figures 3 and 4 il is noted that the 
curve for the rate of germination shows a slowing up 
during the optimum period, and that the difference in 
the number of days in which germination is completed 
is relatively slight while the rate increases markedly 
on both sides of this optimum. 
The effect of fluctuating soil moistures varying from 
8 per cent to saturation was tried on both yellow and 
jeflrey pine seed. The soil in the cans was saturated, 
and placed where evaporation would be so rapid that it 
would dry out considerably in a few days. The effect 
of this was to reduce the germination below the opti¬ 
mum from 07 to 78 per cent for yellow pine, and from 
86 to 73 per cent for jeffrey pine. Similarly, the length 
of time necessary to secure complete germination was 
increased, 13 days for yellow and 18 days for jeffrey 
Pine. The rapidity of germination was correspondingly 
decreased, as it took 67 days to secure a 50 per cent ger¬ 
mination in yellow pine as against 58 days with a 15 
per cent constant soil moisture. In jeffrey pine the in¬ 
crease amounted to 5 days, being 56 as against 51 days. 
These features help explain a number of things in 
local tree distribution which have been puzzling in the 
extreme, and further study is. necessary to ascertain 
how far these features work in nature. The high water 
content at the optimum for white fir explains how this 
species is able to germinate so readily at the edge of 
snow banks and in places where the ground is saturated 
in early spring. Also the facts cited may help explain 
in part why incense cedar germinates more readily in 
the better drained situations than in places where the 
soil is constantly moist for considerable periods; and 
similarly, they explain in part how lodgepole pine can 
germinate at the edge of swamps and lakes while other 
species cannot become established. 
Investigations have not yet been possible to determine 
what effect changes in the character of soils have upon 
germination, or whether this relation is a simple one. It 
is believed that the germination secured by different soil 
moisture contents in sands can be translated directly to 
other soils on a basis of the moisture equivalent. If 
this is the case, the results of seed tests should be given 
in terms of the moisture equivalent of the soils in which 
the test is made, and the optimum range of moisture con¬ 
tents for that soil. In all seed-testing work, the opti¬ 
mum soil moisture values should be used for each 
species, and separate flats or traps should be used in¬ 
stead of the benches where all seeds are treated alike. 
Further studies of the moisture requirements are desir¬ 
able to extend our knowledge of the species, to bring 
about uniformity in seed testing technique, and to 
change nursery practice to fit the requirements of the 
tree species instead of the present system of making the 
species fit the practice. 
GOOD BUSINESS REPORTED BY TIIE NEW IIAYEN 
NURSERIES 
Our shipping department is at the present time over¬ 
whelmed with orders and before the season closes we 
bid fair to double our last spring’s output. This is a 
surprise to us as we anticipated a slowdown in sales this 
year owing to general state of labor conditions. It lias 
to (he contrary acted in the opposite direction seemingly 
and the general public is buying more freely than ever. 
Civic beauty and the utilization of garden for fruits, ber¬ 
ries, etc., seems to have become a uniform point of view 
throughout this section. We believe the Market Dev¬ 
elopment Committee is doing good work along this 
line. e. F. C. 
90 TO 6 
It has been repeatedly claimed that the last convention 
endorsed the “trustworthy” trade-mark and all the 
policies of the present administration by a vote of 90 to 6. 
My recollection is that the 90 to 6 vote was on the 
question ol the amount of dues and did not embrace the 
question of general policy. 
If we had a report of the proceedings, this and other 
questions might he determined instead of being left to 
memory. Why don’t we get it? 
A Seeker for Light. 
SHRUBBERY BORDERS 
T. R. Hopkins, Ferndale, Washington, sends the fol¬ 
lowing clipping from the National Republican with a 
wish that it could be featured by the nursery trade. 
We agree with the sentiment expressed in the clipping 
but not with the suggestion that shrubbery borders are a 
thing of the past. 
In the Atlantic coast states the shrubbery border is as 
common as any other garden feature. 
The small suburban lot does not permit of very exten¬ 
sive ones, but places of any extent, especialy those laid 
out by landscape gardeners invariably have them. 
A PLEA FOR SHRUBBERIES 
No one who has not a shrubbery really knows what the even¬ 
ing song of the blackbird and the thrush can be—especially, I 
think, the blackbird. 
The perfect conditions are, perhaps: April, six o’clock, a 
shower’s last drops just pattering, and the sky just yellow to the 
west. Arnold’s wet bird-haunted English lawn must have shrub¬ 
bery at the edge of it. Yet no one seems to strive after the 
shrubbery any longer. 
Hence it is that houses with good shrubberies must be old and 
today most houses that one sees are new. The shrubbery belongs 
to the days of Miss Austen. In one of her books—I forget which 
—the impossibility of taking a house without a shrubbery at¬ 
tached to it is emphatically insisted on. A house with good 
shrubbery is always old enough for Miss Austen’s characters to 
have lived in it.—E. V. Lucas, from National Republican. April 
I, 1921. Page 6. 
TRUSTWORTHY 
A large nurseryman writes me today and in his letter 
makes the following comment on the matter of trust¬ 
worthy trees:— 
“All small nurserymen and tree dealers are joining 
so as to use the slogan of the convention. Even fellows 
that do not handle nursery stock but go on the river 
banks and dig up trees and have sales ground in the 
cities are making use of the Association’s ‘Trustworthy 
Trees and Plants.’ ” — So-It-Goes. 
