The copper era., 1910-08-12
Ten Tons of Seed For Restocking
National Forests.

Washington, D. c., July-The U. S.
Department of Agriculture is using
this year on the National Forests
over ten tons of tree seed. Most of
this seed has already been planted or
sown. The rest will be utilized later
in the season, as favorable conditions
are presented.
1t takes a great many tree seeds to
make ten tons. Jack pine, the most
important tree for planting in the
Nebraska sand hills by the Forest
Service, will average something like
$4,000 to the pound. OF Western
yellow pine, the tree most extensively
planted throughout the National
Forests as a whole, 10000 seed will
make a pound. Altogether the ten
tons of seed to be used this year re-
present perhaps 300 million single
seeds.
IF every seed could be depended on
to produce young tree suitable for
planting, the result would be supply
of nursery stock sufficient to plant
three hundred thousand acres of land,
but no such result can be looked for
because many seeds do not terminate
Most of the seed will be sown, either
broadcast or in seed spots, or planted
with a corn-planter, directly in the
place where the trees are to stand.
Even when nursery stock is raised
Ill /.
loss. In the first place, a consider
able percentage of the seeds will be
found to be infertile. OF those which
terminate, many will die before they
leave the nursery beds, and many
more will be lost in transplanting. If
from a pound of Western yellow pine
seed that contains 10000 individual
seeds, 1000 three-year- transplants
are available for field planting, the
Department of Agriculture has OBJ
tanned satisfactory results.
There are now twenty-four National
Forest nurseries with an annual pro-
ductive capacity of over million
seedlings. But there are many mill
lions of old burns on the National
Forests which are waiting to be re-
stocked, and some quicken and
cheaper method than the actual plant
ing of nursery-grown trees is urgently
needed. Therefore the foresters are
making experiments on large scale
with different methods of direct SOW
ing and planting, and most of the
seed gathered last year was obtained
for this use.
The sawyers and take the cones
directly from the felled trees. In
standing timber, the task is much
more arduous. The men must often
climb tall pines and pull the cones
from the branches as best they can.
Where these are on the extremities
and beyond the reach of the hand,
pruning shears are used. The cones
are dropped to the ground and then
gathered into buckets and transferred
to sacks, in which they are carried to
a central point for further treatment.
The extraction of the seeds is
l6ulOuS rather IHdu QlHCulC. IN some
cases the cones are spread out upon
sheets in the sun, when after a time,
they open and the seed drop out: in
other cases it is necessary to resort
to artificial heat. This is applied by
placing the cones upon trays with
screen bottoms and raising the tenn
perature of the room to the proper
degree. The cones open, the winged
seeds fan out, and the seed is
separated finally from wings and dirt
by a tanning mill. A good many
seeds have been removed from the
cone by hand, but this is a sore trial
to the fingers of the pickers and an
exceedingly slow process.