Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1907-09-13
TO GATHER SEEDS
AND PLANT FORESTS
GovERNM EMIT WILL TRY THE
BROADCAST METHOD
Collections of Seeds VIII BE Made In
California; Montana, Wyoming
and. Other Western
States

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12.-The forest
service has made arrangements to collect
$4,000 900 seeds of forest trees during Sep
TENDER and October Of this year. The
collections will be made in Montana,
wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and Cali
fornia. from Douglas fir, Engelmann
spruce. western larch, incense cedar and
yellow pine trees.
The seeds will be used for broadcast
sowing and for planting in forest service
nurseries The broadcast sowing will be
| experimental to test the~extent to which
| this method of renewing the forests or
| denuded lands in the west can be used
Many large tracts have been rendered
| treeless by repeated fires, and only by
planting or sowing can timber be made
| to grow there again for long time tc
come. -
The cost of planting nursery seedlings
is great when the area is large. For
that reason it will be an imemnse saving
of money, labor and time If new forest
can be started by broadcast sowing.
Many tests in different states will be
necessary before the problem can be
worked out.
To Plant Seedlings
Much OF the tree 6eeQ TO De COlleCIeu
this fall will be used in the forest service
nurseries. The tiny seedlings will begin
their life in beds, to be later transplanted
for a year or more of care and cultiva-
ton, and finally to be set out on the
denuded mountain slopes.
The gathering Of tree seeds is an in
teresting process. One method is to rob
squirrels nests. The little animal Is made
to work for man. In the west, where
hickory nuts, chestnuts and beech nuts
are very scarce or wholly lacking, the
squirrel gives his attention to pine cones.
He stores them by the bushel behind
old logs or in the hollow bases of trees,
to wait for them to open and release the
seeds. He collects good qualities, for he
climbs to the tops Of the tallest trees
and to the tips of the longest limbs and
cuts down the choice cones. The seed
gatherer searches out and robs the
squirrels hoard.
Seeds must be gathered In other ways
also, for the squirrel collects only certain
species for which he has a particular
taste. When men do the work they
usually go to some tract where lumber
operation is in progress. Seeds may be
conveniently collected from the felled
trees. provided it is a good seed year.
Method of Treatment
After the cones are collected they must
be spread out in the sun and dried, or
in specially stubborn cases subjected to
artificial heat in order that the cones
may be opened and the seed released.
After the seed is extracted 1t Is placed
In bags and stored In a cool, dry place
during the winter ready for spring sow
ing.
The government has nine planting sta
lions. These are at Halsey .Neb; Fort
Bayard, Los Vegas and Fort Stanton
N. M; Pixies Peak national forest, Colo.
the Wasatch national forest, Utah; Po-
catello, Idaho, and Pasadena and San
Marcos, Calf.
If all would grow a ton of almost any
kind of tree seed would produce forest
Of very large area. But no one expects
all the seeds to grow. When the tree
plants them If the natural way very
many perish where one survives John
Muir has estimated for certain trees ten
thousand seeds perish for every one that
lives. The ratio Of the survivors will be
much higher, no doubt, when man plants
and cares for the seeds.