30 Forestry Quarterly. 



Tests of weight at the Eberswalde cone bins which are im- 

 practically equipped and lo x lo x lo = looo cubic feet, with 

 tight walls and cement floors, showed that from 220 pounds ( 100 

 kg) of weight 22 pounds (9.8 kg) of water was dried out in the 

 seed-house shed ; in the case of longer storage the di-ying out 

 was raised to 2>o pounds (15 kg) without shoveling the cones 

 over. 



///. Preliminary Drying-room. 



Invariably in conjunction with the cone-shed a preliminary 

 drying- room is constructed, equipped with similar silos (but 

 perhaps 6^ feet (2 m) wide), with strong, heavy, outer walls, 

 and heated from 'jy° to 95° F. (25° to 35° C.) through the sur- 

 plus hot air of the seed-extracting house. This room if of such 

 size that the seed-house workman can easily manage to store in it 

 a supply sufficient for 10 to 15 kiln-days; requiring, therefore, 

 about 4 to 6 silos. Ventilators remove the moist air. 



More emphasis must be placed upon the continuous removal 

 of the moist air. Only in this way can a more rapid and safer 

 drying be accomplished at moderate degrees of heat. It must 

 be effected in the cone-shed through an active circulation of air. 

 in the prelim inar}^ drying- room with ventilators and in the real 

 drying-kiln by means of exhausts. 



Cones preliminarily dried at a moderate temperature in this 

 manner open easily and with specially good germination energy 

 in their seeds. Time, expense, and danger from heat in the 

 drying-kiln are saved. How eminently important the establish- 

 ment and operation of this sort of preliminary drying-room is for 

 the careful, cheap, and more rapid extraction of seed, (with the 

 application pf the most careful possible temperatures) is shown 

 from investigations in the Eberswalde drying-kiln : Cones dried 

 out in the cone-shed from 112 to loi pounds per 2.8 bushels (51 

 to 46 kg per hectolitre), lost during the 7 days in which they 

 were preliminarily dried at 91° F. (33° C.) in small compartments 

 through which air circulated, 13 pounds (6 kg) more of water. 

 The ripest cones began to crack open on this seventh day. Ac- 

 cordingly, therefore, the original weight of freshly delivered 

 cones which equals 112 pounds per 2.8 bushels (51 kg per hi) 

 \vas reduced through drying in the air and in the preliminary 

 drying-room to 88 pounds (40 kg). The favorable result thus 



