The first comprehensive handbook on the seeds of trees and shrubs produced by the USDA Forest Service was USDA Misc. Pub. 654, Woody-Plant Seed Manual. The manuscript was ready for publication in 1941, but World War II delayed publication until 1948. The boom in tree planting in the 1950s and 1960s created a large demand for seeds and exposed the gaps in our knowledge concerning production and quality of seeds of woody plants in general.
Realization of this condition led to the revision and considerable expansion of the manual, resulting in publication of USDA Agric. Handbk. 450, Seeds of Woody Plants in the United States, in 1974. Seed data were presented for about
800 species, varieties, and sub-species in 188 genera, considerable more than the 420 species and 140 genera in the 1948 edition. The 1974 Handbook proved to be very popular both in this country and abroad, leading to five printings and translations in several other languages. More than a quarter-century after its publication, however, numerous advances in tree seed technology have dictated that a new revision is needed; the result is the current volume.