Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-17

ieuerdl nolldrS In thelr pockets TO be spent
for the things that make Christmas
pleasant For the harvest of the newest
novelty crop is jus. now in and to be
celebrated So has the gathering of tree
seed come. within the last three years to
be great industry, with the federal gov
eminent it's sponsor. So is the new
industry supplying the government with
seed with which to convert every acre of
the 20o.OO0,C0o that are set aside for for
ests into land that is yielding the best
possible crop.
Of the nations forest land. sixty million
acres are today covered with mature tim
Der. while forty million acres are well seed
ed with young growth This leaves a
hundred million acres that are either nom
productive or only partly productive. 1t
is for this hundred million acres that seed
are to he gathered and it is upon this
vast expanse that they to be planted
until the whole is developed into its
greatest possible yielding capacity MAX
ing it one of the finest forests that the
world has ever known. OF the non-pro-
ducing lands within the national forests
there are seven and a half millions of
acres OF burnt overland that are absolutely
pare and beyond the bore of being
seeded by other than artificial means Still
outside of the national forests are great
areas of privately owned land which has
been cut over and burnt over until today
II Is producing nothing. To the owners of
all such land the government hopes
through the development of it's new found
industry to become an object lesson that
will result i'm demonstration by private
individuals that will far eclipse anything
done by the government.
With this great task of overcoming the
barren lands in view. the government
three or four years ago. began looking
tn hat II
that the first great need was for tree
seed Of course 1t wanted to plant the
sort OF trees that would lead to the most
valuable yields in timber. 1t wanted seed
from the Douglas fir of the Pacific north
west. from the western yellow pine, from
the Engelmann spruce. the lOdgepo.e pine
and the white pine and spruce of New
England These are the trees OF greatest
value in the forest They are all cOnfers.
or cone-bearing trees. In the fall they
drop their cones one by one into the
needles and leaves that strew the ground
beneath them To go into the shades of
these great forests. gather these cones,
transport them to some central point and
extract the seed is the work of the tree
seed harvester
When the government found itself in
reed OF many tens of these inc cones 1t
was unacquainted with the best method
of getting them. The first move was to
send the rangers into the woods with in
structions to get what seed they could.
but forest rangers are BUSY men, ana
their other duties allow them little time
TGF = 'tner4ne cones Men were hired and
sent in squads into the forests to gather
cones, but this was found TO he eX-
pensive process and one requiring many
ramificatiOns. for the seed were to be COL
lected in many localities at the same
time.
In the end the forest supervisors hit
upon happy solution of the whole mat
ter. They advertised in given regions
that certain amounts per bushel would be
paid for all cones of certain varieties