Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-09-20
WILL sow
TREE SEEDS
Forest Service Preparing
to Plant Trees on
Reserves.

WASHINGTON, Sept. l9.-The for
est service has made arrangements to
collect $4,000 seeds of forest trees dur
ing September and October of this
year The collections will be made in
Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona
and California from Douglas fir, En-
gelmam spruce, western larch, insense
cedar and yellow pine trees.
The seeds will be used for broadcast
sewing and for planting in forest serv-
ice nurseries. The broadcast sowing
will be experimental to test the extent
to which this method of renewing the
forests on 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 got to grow there again
for long time.
Means Great Saving.
The cost of planting nursery seed
lings is great when the area is large.
4 For that reason it will be an immense
saving of money, labor and time If a
new forest can be started by broadcast
SOWlUS. Manly lCSlo III bliACASiAt 5Nc~SN7
will be necessary before the problem
can be worked out.
Much of the tree seed to be collected
this fall will be used in the forest serv-
ice nurseries. The tiny seedlings will
begin their life in beds, to be later
transplanted for year or more of care
and cultivation, and finally to be set
out on the denuded mountain slopes.
How They Get Seeds.
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 atten-
ton to pine cones. He stores them by
the bushel behind old logs, or in the
hollow base of trees, to wait for them
to open and release the seeds. He col
lects 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.
At Lumber Camps, Too.
Seeds must be gathered in other
ways also, for the squirrel collects
only certain species for which he has
particular taste. When men do the
work they usually go to some tract
where a lumber operation is in prog
ress. Seeds may be conveniently col
lected from the felled trees, provided
it is a good seed year.
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 ex-
tracted II is placed in bags and stored
in cool, dry place during the winter
tready for spring sowing.
VIII Sow in Idaho.
The government has nine planting
stations. These are at Halsey, Neb.i
Fort Bayard, Las Vegas and For
Stanton. New Mexico; Pixies Peal
National forest, Colo; the Wasatcf
National forest. Utah: Pocatello. Ida.
and Pasadena and San Marcos, Cal.
If all would grow a ton of almos
any kind of tree seed would produce
forest of very large area. But no on
lexpects all the seeds to grow. Whei
the tree plants them in the natural wa,
very many perish where one survives
John Muir has estimated for certail
trees 10000 seeds perish for every on
that lives. The ratio of the survivor
Twin be much higher, no doubt. whe
man plants and cares for the seeds.