494 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



or rolled on the floor. The seed can be 

 cleaned by carefully pouring it from one 

 box to another in a current of air. A grain 

 fanning mill fitted with screens of different 

 size is preferable, however, and should be 

 used whenever available. In obtaining 

 clean seed of good quality, it is often neces- 

 sary to blow away what appears to be good 

 seed, but what is actually worthless. The 

 final process of cleaning can often be 

 greatly facilitated if the cones have been 

 screened before drying begins. In this way 

 needles and other foreign matter can be 

 removed at the start. 



YIELD OF SEED. 



The yield depends upon the quality of the 

 cones, upon the drying and upon the extrac- 

 tion and cleaning of the seed. Douglas Fir 

 should yield li,4 pounds of clean seed to 

 the bushel. Yellow Pine has frequently 

 yielded as high as 2 pounds to the bushel, 

 if a smaller yield is obtained, it is an 

 indication either that the cones are of in- 

 ferior quality or that extraction is incom- 

 plete. In the case of Lodgepole Pine and 

 Englemann Spruce a yield larger than 1 

 pound to the bushel can hardly be expected. 

 It is generally less. 



SHIPPING AND STORING. 



Seed is usually shipped by express. In 

 preparing it for shipment it is placed in 

 strong sacks enclosed in boxes or crates. 

 Labels with the following information 

 should be placed inside the sacks: Species, 

 name of forest, elevation, date and total 

 cost per pound. The boxes or crates should 

 be carefully marked with their destination. 

 Seed should not be kept in a heated room 

 for any length of time. A cool dry place 

 like an unheated cellar or basement is best. 

 To prevent loss by mice, it is usually 

 necessary to hang the sacks from a ceiling 

 by means of hooks or wires. 



Past experience in collecting shows that 

 the work has most invariably been started 

 too late. The test results can only lie ob- 

 tained by planning and arranging the work 

 early in the season, by organizing it on a 

 scale sufficiently large and by prosecuting 

 the work with all possible energy so as to 

 complete it while the weather is still good 

 and before the slow and expensive artificial 

 drying becomes necessary. 



Fire Supervision on the Deerlodge 



The scheme of using per diem guards 

 will be given a very thorough try-out this 

 season. Men recommended for such posi- 

 tions should, in every case, be reliable, re- 

 sponsible citizens of the community and 

 have, if possible, at their disposal and 

 under their direction a number of men who 

 can be used as the whole or nucleus of a 

 fire-fighting crew. Each ranger should 

 make it his immediate duty to secure the 

 consent of such men in his district to serve 



in the capacity of per diem guards and 

 should send into the Anaconda Office, as 

 soon as possible, the name of each man 

 recommended for the position, stating his 

 full name, postoffice address, business, the 

 number of men controlled by him who can 

 be put immediately in the field in case of 

 fire, how he can most quickly be notified 

 in case of fire, his location in or near the 

 forest, together with any other information 

 bearing on the question. As a rule, from 

 three to five such appointees on each dis- 

 trict appears to be a desirable number. 

 They should, of course, be distributed over 

 the district as advantageously as possible 

 under the circumstances. The authority 

 of such men will be limited to the hand- 

 ling of fire protection and no other admin- 

 istrative duties whatever will be assigned 

 to them. 



The reconnaissance and permanent im- 

 provement crews will be used as protective 

 forces to be summoned at any time in case 

 of fire in the region in which they are 

 working, with a possibility that in case the 

 fire season becomes especially bad, the crews 

 will be disintegrated more or less to per- 

 mit sending individual members to dif- 

 ferent places to assist in handling or to 

 take charge of fires. The men in such 

 crews will be selected more or less with a 

 view to the possibility of their being used 

 in the capacity just mentioned and men in 

 charge of such crews will be expected to see 

 that the members of the crews understand 

 the principles of fire fighting and the rules 

 laid down in this circular. 



Those district rangers who have not 

 already done so should immediately fur- 

 nish the office with a list of the places 

 where fire fighting tools should be cached 

 in their districts. For each cache the num- 

 ber and kind of tools should be specified. 



The following rules should be followed 

 without variation except by special author- 

 ity from the Supervisor: 



Rates: 



1. The standard rate of pay shall he 25c 

 per hour with board or 30c per hour if the 

 employee boards himself, as in the case of 

 a rancher or miner, living near the fire. 

 Foremen in charge of crews shall receive 

 30c per hour and board. This applies only 

 to men in charge of camps and not to so- 

 called "straw bosses" temporarily in charge 

 of a small gang. 



Packers shall get $3 per day, cooks $3 

 per day and cookees $2.50 per day. Cooks 

 pay may be raised somewhat according to 

 the size of the crew and the amount of 

 help he has in the way of cookees, but 

 should in no case exceed $3.50 per day. 



2. No fixed amount can be set for hire 

 of pack horses and teams but the standard 

 rate shall be $1 per day for pack horses, 

 the service providing their feed, and $6 per 

 day for man and team, the team to be fed 

 by owner. 



