German Sccd-Bxtracting EsfablisJuncnt. 31 



obtained lies in the fact that an unusually short time and mod- 

 erate temperature will accomplish the complete final opening. 



The application of y7° to 95° F. (25° to 33° C.) in this pre- 

 liminar}' drying-room in which the cones remain 10 to 15 days 

 according" to their condition, before kiln-drying, corresponds to 

 the noon-day temperature at which cones sown in plantations 

 crack open voluntarily. The treatment in the drying-kiln, then, 

 serves only to hasten the completion of the process, to effect the 

 complete opening of the more resistant, hard-opening smaller 

 cones, etc. 



Arrangements for heating this room can be eft'ected without 

 cost for special heating material, through suitable management 

 of the hot-air combined with the drawing-off of the resulting 

 damp air. 



Such heating arrangements are found operating with special 

 economy in all veneer factories, chair factories, furniture works, 

 etc.. which must subject their wood to a special drying process. 

 They are not new, nor especially costly, nor difficult for the in- 

 dustries which are concerned with them. Just as little so is the 

 arrangement of the following. 



IV. Drying-kiln. 



It was formerly the opinion (and Borgmann and von Penz 

 even about 1900 remodeled and managed the Eberswalde drying- 

 kiln according to this principle) that the still-closed cone could 

 be kiln-dried with higher degrees of heat because it protects the 

 enclosed seed, but that care must be taken, therefore, to have the 

 seed fall out of the opened cone as soon as possible into a cooler 

 room. This idea has indeed, in a certain respect, been most in- 

 fluential for drum drying-kilns, etc. It is not to be doubted that 

 every supcrflnous delay in a high temperature can do no good 

 to the seed. 



However, the application of higher degrees of heat to cones 

 still closed and therefore containing moisture is (contrary to the 

 opinion just expressed) especially dangerous, as in general 

 living things (and the embryo in the seed is such a thing) can 

 resist dry heat better than moist; in every case numerous experi- 

 ments in the Eberswalde drying-kiln have shown (and Over- 

 forester Haack has given attention to th*-) that cones which are 



