In the upland pine-hardwood type of east Texas, prescribed burns were made at four times of the year and at intervals of 3 to 43 months prior to the heavy shortleaf pine seed year of 1955. Measurements of seedling development indicated that: (1) With a better than average shortleaf seed crop, followed by a droughy winter, germination averaged only 3.7 percent. (2) Germination percent was reduced by about 1.4 percentage points for each year elapsing between burning and seedfall. (3) By early July, survival was similar, although fairly low, on all treatments. (4) At the end of an adverse season there were differences in survival that indicated the superiority of growing-season fires over dormant-season burns.© Society of American Foresters, Bethesda, MD. Abstract reproduced by permission.