440 Forestry Quarterly. 



hand, since squirrels did not gadier and hoard the cones. Some of 

 the pickers became very expert, averaging two bushels an hour 

 each ; however, the average individual would gather only three or 

 four bushels a day. Hooks and pruners were used to some 

 extent, but the majority preferred to pick by hand. Picking by 

 hand was encouraged because less injury was done to the trees. 



Wherever the squirrels hoard cones, robbing the hoards was 

 the most satisfactory method of getting the cones. Supervisor 

 Sweitzer said that without the assistance of the squirrels, gather- 

 ing Douglas fir cones would be impracticable. The same may be 

 said of Engelmann spruce. 



It was the consensus of opinion that purchasing cones by 

 measure was preferable to buying by weight. Mr. Sweitzer paid 

 75 cents per bushel for Douglas Fir cones purchased from ranch- 

 men and delivered at his headquarters. He thought the price 

 was fair, since cones gathered by laborers working for him by 

 the day cost him 80 cents per bushel. It appears that Engelmann 

 spruce cones cost about the same, and Western Yellow Pine 

 cones should be obtained for about 50 cents per bushel. 



On the San Juan (E) Forest about | pound of clean seed per 

 bushel was obtained. The same amount of Engelmann spruce 

 seed per bushel of cones should be obtained. The clean Douglas 

 Fir seed cost Mr. Sweitzer about $1.10 per pound. Mr. Wheeler 

 said he expected to reduce the cost of clean Western Yellow Pine 

 seed to 60 cents per pound or less, in the future. Seventy-five 

 cents per bushel of cones was paid for 2400 bushels in the Black 

 Hills (N). 



Supervisor French said, by using ranger labor, the cost of 

 lodgepole pine cones was reduced to 60 cents per bushel. 



Supervisor Langworthy was fortunate in having a large crop 

 of Western Yellow Pine cones and paid 50 cents per sack. He 

 failed to state the size of the sacks but presumably they were the 

 ■bushel sacks. Conditions being different on the San Isabel 

 Forest than on Forests where the cones were delivered at central 

 points, he maintained field camps, five or six in number, to which 

 the cones were brought and the seed extracted. He says : "A 

 great many of the cones opened in the sacks. The last cones we 

 picked opened up within four days after they were placed on the 

 sheets. Cones picked before that took about eight days. We 

 began at that camp gathering cones on September 15. We waited 



