1 FOREST GENETICS RESEARCH AT NEWTON It all began
FOREST GENETICS RESEARCH AT NEWTON Meditation on trees and the breeding thereof in memoriam – A tribute
It all began on a Monday morning, just an ordinary day, on the 8th of July 1957, but for me no ordinary day, it was in effect the commencement of one of those events in ones life which “Taken at the flood lead on to fortune,” no flood, but fortune was there in the form of trees and their flowers, many would say, how dull can fortune bequeath. The place was Newton in Morayshire at a research field station run by the Forestry Commission, where a forest Genetics unit was established in 1952 following the creation of the founder establishment at Alice Holt at Farnham in Surrey and headed by John Matthews in 1948 who latterly became Professor of Forestry at Aberdeen University. This little story is about the basic ground work involved at ‘Newton’, the overall picture being covered by, “Fifty Years of Tree Breeding in Great Britain”, Samuel, John and Lee. Forest Research 2000. In 1952 a small experimental seed orchard was established at Newton composed of one European Larch clone (Larix decidua Mill) and nine Japanese Larch clones (Larix leptolepis. Sieb and Zuce), a clone being asexually reproduced from a common ancestor. Each clone was selected from an outstanding phenotype, that is the visible characters of a plant, the product of a plant genotype and its environment. This was amongst the first such early work carried out on experimental tree seed orchards, preceded only by Denmark and Sweden (Matthews). The layout of the orchard was a line formation with 9 Japanese clones alternating with the 1 European larch clone. As the clones are physiologically the same age as the mother tree (the ortet) from which they derived it follows that flowering commences soon after grafting. This is of considerable benefit to the tree breeders as controlled crossing work can then be undertaken at ground level, so to speak. However, grafts and their attendant flowers don’t remain at ground level and so it became necessary to follow them upward as growth increased year by year. To cater for this upward trend (in defiance of gravity you might say) we went up also using larger and larger contraptions, the first of which were very light weight aluminium ladders, up to 5 – 10 ft. with a wide splayed base and adjustable third leg. Not content with this, more growth, larger ladders, with the same principle up to 15ft., but then as these became somewhat unstable, a fourth leg was added to defeat “sideways gravity”. Still not the end, two massive wooden tressil ladders with a plank bridging the gap. Following this a 20ft. aluminium ladder fitted into lugs at the front off the Land Rover which was very manoeuvrable, but perhaps a little unnerving for the man at the top of the ladder. 1
The final wonder of technology was a hoist; engine powered which raised a man sized bucket to unbelievable heights. Beyond this and out with our Newton limits trees were climbed, but that is another story. The process of controlled crossing entails isolating the female flowers well before they exhibit signs of opening or colour. At Newton the aim was to control cross the female flowers on the European larch and Japanese larch clones using pollen from the male flowers on the two species and crossing each way to produce hybrids (Larix eurolepis Henry) material and create hybrid vigour or heterosis, the resultant seed of which would then be sown in replicated progeny trials in the nursery followed by field trials over a range of sites, with a common control to evaluate the best crosses in terms of the rate of growth, form, health and ecotypes, with timber quality coming later in the testing process. In the early days waxed paper bags were used, which were not ideal as they were very vulnerable to wind and weather. Later refinements however produced clear polythene tubes with foam polythene stoppers at the neck and mouth. For sitka spruce strong terylene bags with windows were used. For pine a very much smaller polythene tube was used similar to that used for larch. Each isolate was tallied and logged prior to pollination with the relevant cross. Before this the male flowers were collected prior to opening, taken indoors and ‘forced’ into shedding under heat provided by paraffin heaters. This was for larch well before refinements were increased for pine and sitka spruce. Our laboratory was a “pigeon loft”, being an old stone building; in fact an arched entrance to the one time Newton Farm before the Forestry Commission bought the land for a nursery in 1930-31. The male flowers were spread out on sheets of brown paper and each lot covered to prevent contamination between different clones. It was a race against time, in order that both the pollen and the female flowers were fully developed at the same time, a big problem being that different individual trees (clones in this case) don’t obey the rules and can be widely separated in terms of receptivity.
2
Once the pollen was extracted and fully dried, (each lot carefully separated) it was poured into clear polythene jars with filters before transferring to wax containers which had a rubber hose and glass tube at one end plus a clip which when released allowed the pollen to flow into small pollen guns which were a crude but very effective type of hypodermic syringe complete with rubber bulb and needle. Again, each instrument labelled and numbered with the particular clone. All being well and frost didn’t upset all our efforts (in the case of larch the flowers developed very early) the controlled crossing was then undertaken as and when each isolated set of flowers were at full development. A crossing pattern was devised for each clone to give a balanced trial for progeny testing. The actual act of pollination involved inserting the needle of the pollen gun through the bag and squeezing the rubber bulb to observe the spray of pollen adequately covering the female flowers, withdrawing the needle and sealing the hole left with wax. In the case of tubes the needle is inserted down the side of the sponge. A precise record of each cross is made on an attached label, sometimes a colour code is used and by notebook for example E♀6 X J♂42 i.e. Female – Male. Lastly, then, though not the end of the road by any means, the pollinated flowers inside their covers develop, the covers removed and cones resulting are duly collected, the seed of each cross extracted for eventual sowing and testing in progeny trials. It is perhaps of interest that European larch 6 is from Dunkeld, on the Kennel Bank, and is still there, Japanese larch 42 is from Dalbeattie. The initial survey to locate the outstanding trees, called plus trees, was carried out in the early days of Genetics Branch, each given a number and painted in yellow with a band and the number following the tree throughout its life. Scions were collected from each tree, grafted onto rootstocks and planted into clone banks, or seed orchards. The word scion is from the Greek, a maiden shoot, a detached plant of living tissue, even strangely enough it seems, the descendent of a noble family! In 1957 a large area of field at Newton known as the Ramie Park was planted with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L) clones, many of native origin, which was the national clone bank of all the selected plus trees for breeding purposes. Apart from being an important reserve the clone bank served as a base for many controlled crossing programmes. These crosses 3
were intraspecific (within species) whereas the larch crosses were interspecific (between species) Other species included in this area as part of the breeding programme are various species of pine, of hybrid spruce and Betala species from Finland.
Long after John and I had both retired we kept up a correspondence mainly over the future of Newton as an historical and cultural record of the early breeding work as seen at a basic level and it was toward this end that John visited Newton on the 8th May 2000. (see photo). This idea was taken up by Scottish Forest Industries as part of a North East Timber Trail (from seed to sawmill) in a feasibility study. Lastly on the 13th of May 2005 almost the entire past members of the Genetics Branch 1948-2000 gathered at Dunkeld and then N.R.S. to yes, mourn the ending of the Genetics branch. Sadly John was unable to be present; he died on the 26th May 2005. He will be sadly missed, a man of enormous enthusiasm and knowledge which he instilled throughout all of us who had the good fortune to work with him. I dedicate this simple story to him. Michael T.T. Phillips. October 2005.
4
Photos: 1. Professor John Matthews, on a visit to Newton 8/05/2000. (M.T.T. Phillips) 2. Wooden scaffold (A. Watson) 3. Ladder mounted on Land Rover (A. Watson) 4. Hoist (A. Watson) 5. Jim Thompson and Alan Mitchell 1/4/58. probably the first controlled pollination carried out on grafts from selected forest trees. (A. Watson) 6. Isolates on Lodgepole Pine (A. Watson) 7. Pigeon loft, early pollen extractory (M.T.T. Phillips) 8. Pollinations equipment (A. Watson) 9. Alan Mitchell and Mike Phillips 1/4/58. Filling a pollen gun. (A.Watson) 10. Newton Hybrid Larch Seed Orchard. 2000. Established 1952. (M.T.T. Phillips) 11. Ramie Park (M.T.T. Phillips) 12. Newton from the air. 1980 (R.A.F)
References: Comments on Newton by Pro. J.D. Matthews, J. Dewar (Director Research) and M.T.T.Phillips. Scottish Forestry V0154 No 2. 2000. North East Timber Trail. Feasibility study - January 2005. Letter from Dr. Peter Freer-Smith. Genetics Research Areas at Newton Field Station, Moray – 6th July 2004. Newton 9P.52 – Seed Orchard for the Production of Hybrid Larch Seed. Prof. John Matthews – 23rd May 2003. Fifty Years of Tree Breeding in Great Britain. C.J.A. Samuel, A. John and S.J. Lee. Forest Research - 26th March 2004.
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Acknowledgements: Sam Samuel for real practical advice and Bill Mason for approval of the content, on behalf of the Forestry Commission. To my daughter Susan for transferring notes and photos onto the computer. To Bill Bartlam for reading and corrections. To Jenny Main for retyping and acceptance for publication in the Moray Field Club Bulletin. And to Brian for computer skills and converting slides to photos.
6
It all began on a Monday morning, just an ordinary day, on the 8th of July 1957, but for me no ordinary day, it was in effect the commencement of one of those events in ones life which “Taken at the flood lead on to fortune,” no flood, but fortune was there in the form of trees and their flowers, many would say, how dull can fortune bequeath. The place was Newton in Morayshire at a research field station run by the Forestry Commission, where a forest Genetics unit was established in 1952 following the creation of the founder establishment at Alice Holt at Farnham in Surrey and headed by John Matthews in 1948 who latterly became Professor of Forestry at Aberdeen University. This little story is about the basic ground work involved at ‘Newton’, the overall picture being covered by, “Fifty Years of Tree Breeding in Great Britain”, Samuel, John and Lee. Forest Research 2000. In 1952 a small experimental seed orchard was established at Newton composed of one European Larch clone (Larix decidua Mill) and nine Japanese Larch clones (Larix leptolepis. Sieb and Zuce), a clone being asexually reproduced from a common ancestor. Each clone was selected from an outstanding phenotype, that is the visible characters of a plant, the product of a plant genotype and its environment. This was amongst the first such early work carried out on experimental tree seed orchards, preceded only by Denmark and Sweden (Matthews). The layout of the orchard was a line formation with 9 Japanese clones alternating with the 1 European larch clone. As the clones are physiologically the same age as the mother tree (the ortet) from which they derived it follows that flowering commences soon after grafting. This is of considerable benefit to the tree breeders as controlled crossing work can then be undertaken at ground level, so to speak. However, grafts and their attendant flowers don’t remain at ground level and so it became necessary to follow them upward as growth increased year by year. To cater for this upward trend (in defiance of gravity you might say) we went up also using larger and larger contraptions, the first of which were very light weight aluminium ladders, up to 5 – 10 ft. with a wide splayed base and adjustable third leg. Not content with this, more growth, larger ladders, with the same principle up to 15ft., but then as these became somewhat unstable, a fourth leg was added to defeat “sideways gravity”. Still not the end, two massive wooden tressil ladders with a plank bridging the gap. Following this a 20ft. aluminium ladder fitted into lugs at the front off the Land Rover which was very manoeuvrable, but perhaps a little unnerving for the man at the top of the ladder. 1
The final wonder of technology was a hoist; engine powered which raised a man sized bucket to unbelievable heights. Beyond this and out with our Newton limits trees were climbed, but that is another story. The process of controlled crossing entails isolating the female flowers well before they exhibit signs of opening or colour. At Newton the aim was to control cross the female flowers on the European larch and Japanese larch clones using pollen from the male flowers on the two species and crossing each way to produce hybrids (Larix eurolepis Henry) material and create hybrid vigour or heterosis, the resultant seed of which would then be sown in replicated progeny trials in the nursery followed by field trials over a range of sites, with a common control to evaluate the best crosses in terms of the rate of growth, form, health and ecotypes, with timber quality coming later in the testing process. In the early days waxed paper bags were used, which were not ideal as they were very vulnerable to wind and weather. Later refinements however produced clear polythene tubes with foam polythene stoppers at the neck and mouth. For sitka spruce strong terylene bags with windows were used. For pine a very much smaller polythene tube was used similar to that used for larch. Each isolate was tallied and logged prior to pollination with the relevant cross. Before this the male flowers were collected prior to opening, taken indoors and ‘forced’ into shedding under heat provided by paraffin heaters. This was for larch well before refinements were increased for pine and sitka spruce. Our laboratory was a “pigeon loft”, being an old stone building; in fact an arched entrance to the one time Newton Farm before the Forestry Commission bought the land for a nursery in 1930-31. The male flowers were spread out on sheets of brown paper and each lot covered to prevent contamination between different clones. It was a race against time, in order that both the pollen and the female flowers were fully developed at the same time, a big problem being that different individual trees (clones in this case) don’t obey the rules and can be widely separated in terms of receptivity.
2
Once the pollen was extracted and fully dried, (each lot carefully separated) it was poured into clear polythene jars with filters before transferring to wax containers which had a rubber hose and glass tube at one end plus a clip which when released allowed the pollen to flow into small pollen guns which were a crude but very effective type of hypodermic syringe complete with rubber bulb and needle. Again, each instrument labelled and numbered with the particular clone. All being well and frost didn’t upset all our efforts (in the case of larch the flowers developed very early) the controlled crossing was then undertaken as and when each isolated set of flowers were at full development. A crossing pattern was devised for each clone to give a balanced trial for progeny testing. The actual act of pollination involved inserting the needle of the pollen gun through the bag and squeezing the rubber bulb to observe the spray of pollen adequately covering the female flowers, withdrawing the needle and sealing the hole left with wax. In the case of tubes the needle is inserted down the side of the sponge. A precise record of each cross is made on an attached label, sometimes a colour code is used and by notebook for example E♀6 X J♂42 i.e. Female – Male. Lastly, then, though not the end of the road by any means, the pollinated flowers inside their covers develop, the covers removed and cones resulting are duly collected, the seed of each cross extracted for eventual sowing and testing in progeny trials. It is perhaps of interest that European larch 6 is from Dunkeld, on the Kennel Bank, and is still there, Japanese larch 42 is from Dalbeattie. The initial survey to locate the outstanding trees, called plus trees, was carried out in the early days of Genetics Branch, each given a number and painted in yellow with a band and the number following the tree throughout its life. Scions were collected from each tree, grafted onto rootstocks and planted into clone banks, or seed orchards. The word scion is from the Greek, a maiden shoot, a detached plant of living tissue, even strangely enough it seems, the descendent of a noble family! In 1957 a large area of field at Newton known as the Ramie Park was planted with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L) clones, many of native origin, which was the national clone bank of all the selected plus trees for breeding purposes. Apart from being an important reserve the clone bank served as a base for many controlled crossing programmes. These crosses 3
were intraspecific (within species) whereas the larch crosses were interspecific (between species) Other species included in this area as part of the breeding programme are various species of pine, of hybrid spruce and Betala species from Finland.
Long after John and I had both retired we kept up a correspondence mainly over the future of Newton as an historical and cultural record of the early breeding work as seen at a basic level and it was toward this end that John visited Newton on the 8th May 2000. (see photo). This idea was taken up by Scottish Forest Industries as part of a North East Timber Trail (from seed to sawmill) in a feasibility study. Lastly on the 13th of May 2005 almost the entire past members of the Genetics Branch 1948-2000 gathered at Dunkeld and then N.R.S. to yes, mourn the ending of the Genetics branch. Sadly John was unable to be present; he died on the 26th May 2005. He will be sadly missed, a man of enormous enthusiasm and knowledge which he instilled throughout all of us who had the good fortune to work with him. I dedicate this simple story to him. Michael T.T. Phillips. October 2005.
4
Photos: 1. Professor John Matthews, on a visit to Newton 8/05/2000. (M.T.T. Phillips) 2. Wooden scaffold (A. Watson) 3. Ladder mounted on Land Rover (A. Watson) 4. Hoist (A. Watson) 5. Jim Thompson and Alan Mitchell 1/4/58. probably the first controlled pollination carried out on grafts from selected forest trees. (A. Watson) 6. Isolates on Lodgepole Pine (A. Watson) 7. Pigeon loft, early pollen extractory (M.T.T. Phillips) 8. Pollinations equipment (A. Watson) 9. Alan Mitchell and Mike Phillips 1/4/58. Filling a pollen gun. (A.Watson) 10. Newton Hybrid Larch Seed Orchard. 2000. Established 1952. (M.T.T. Phillips) 11. Ramie Park (M.T.T. Phillips) 12. Newton from the air. 1980 (R.A.F)
References: Comments on Newton by Pro. J.D. Matthews, J. Dewar (Director Research) and M.T.T.Phillips. Scottish Forestry V0154 No 2. 2000. North East Timber Trail. Feasibility study - January 2005. Letter from Dr. Peter Freer-Smith. Genetics Research Areas at Newton Field Station, Moray – 6th July 2004. Newton 9P.52 – Seed Orchard for the Production of Hybrid Larch Seed. Prof. John Matthews – 23rd May 2003. Fifty Years of Tree Breeding in Great Britain. C.J.A. Samuel, A. John and S.J. Lee. Forest Research - 26th March 2004.
5
Acknowledgements: Sam Samuel for real practical advice and Bill Mason for approval of the content, on behalf of the Forestry Commission. To my daughter Susan for transferring notes and photos onto the computer. To Bill Bartlam for reading and corrections. To Jenny Main for retyping and acceptance for publication in the Moray Field Club Bulletin. And to Brian for computer skills and converting slides to photos.
6
