Omaha daily bee., 1910-10-01
TEN TONS OF FOREST SEED
Activities Of the Agricultural DepHr
ment I'm ReplenishinR
Forests,

The United States Department OF Agri-
culture is using this year on the national
forests more than ten tons Of tree seed.
Most Of this seed has already been planted
or sown The rest will be utilized later as
favorable conditions are presented.
IL takes great many tree seeds to make
ten tons. Jack pine, the most important
tree for planting in the Nebraska sand hills,
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 make
a pound Altogether the ten tons of seed
used this year represent perhaps @oOOO,OOO
single seeds.
II every seed could be depended on TO
produce q young tree suitable for planting,
the result would be a supply Of nursery
stock sufficient to plant 10000 acres of land,
but no such results can be looked for be-
cause 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 a
liberal allowance must be made for loss.
In the first place a considerable percent
age of the seeds wlA be found to be IN
fertile OF those which terminate, many
will die before they leave the nursery
beds, and many more will be lost in trans
| planting. If from a pound OF western
yellow pine seed that contains 10000 inii-
vidual seeds 1900 3-year-old transplants
are available for field planting, the De-
partment of Agriculture will have obtained
/ satisfactory results. There are now
twenty-four national forest nurseries
having annual productive ca.
pacity of over 100000 seedlings
| But there are many millions of old
burns on the national forests which are
waiting to be restocked, and some quicker
! and cheaper method than the actual
planting of nursery grown trees is urg.
emily needed. Therefore, the foresters are
making experiments on large scale
with different methods of direct sowing
gathered last year was obtained for this
use.
Broadcasting has already been found &c
give good results in some regions. 1t wa'
| first tried in the Black Hills of Soutt
Dakota, with an encouraging outcome
! To broadcast an acre of land with yellow
! pine seed about eight pounds of seed is
used. One of the most formidable draw
| backs to this method is the extent e
which the seed may be consumed by bird!
and rodents. If the season happens to b'
one in which food for these animals Is
scarce, the loss is very heavy. The prob
! lem of control animal pests, such a!
field mice, ground squirrels, and gophers
which eat the tree seeds. and also thu
further problem of preventing the depre
datons OF rabbits, which are altogether
too fond of the little trees themselves
whether nursery transplants or fclG
grown seedlings, Is receiving the attention
OF the biological survey experts of thu
Department of Agriculture.
In some localities the department hal
had to purchase seeu, but most of tina
used is gathered by forest service mel
themselves. The cost OF gathering ha
varied for the different regions from
So cents to 81 a pound. AS a rule, tn
seed is collected in the fall months, whel
most conifers ripen their. seed. Partie
| of three or four men ordinarily work to
gether. When numbering is in progress
the collectors follow the sawyers and tax
e cones directly from the felled trees
In standing timber, the ask is much NOR
arduous. The men must often climb tai
pines and pull the cones from the branche
as best they can. Where these are OF
the extremities and beyond the reach o
the hand, pruning shears are used. Tn
cones are dropped to ne ground and the
gathered into buckets and transferred t
sacks, in which they are carried to
central point for further treatment.
The extraction of the seeds is tediou
rather than difficult. In some cases tn
cones are spread out upon sheets in tn
sun, when, after a time, they open an
the seeds drop out; in other cases II
, necessary to resort to artificial, hea
, This is applied by placing the cones upo
, trays with screen bottoms and raising tn
temperature of the room to the proper de
= gree. The cones open, the winged seed
fail out. and the seed is afterwar
= separated from the wings and dirt by
tanning mill A good many seeds hav
been removed from the cone by hand, bu
I this is a sore trial to the fingers of tn
. pickers, and an exceedingly slow process
r Harpers Weekly.