THRESHING DOUGLAS FIR CONES 



When facilities do not permit sending the entire cones in to the kiln house, the ranger threshes 

 the cones where they are collected, thus leaving only the seed to be sent to the main station. 

 Although not so advantageous in many ways, this method allows large quantities of seeds 

 to be brought from the outposts which would not otherwise be available. (Fig. 2.) 



cases larger quantities of cones than the 

 usual sample were collected from ])arti- 

 cular trees for use in special supple- 

 mentary studies. The various steps in 

 the study have yielded voluminous data 

 on the cones, seeds and seedlings, only 

 the general nature of which can be indi- 

 cated here. 



THE CONE AND SEED 



1 . Study of the green, tmopcned cones, 

 their condition and color; measurements 

 to obtain the "number of cones per 

 bushel" and "nimiber of bushels per 

 tree." 



2. Drying of the cones ; extraction and 

 cleaning of the seed. Recf^rds were 

 made of the amount of uncleaned and 



486 



cleaned seed per sample, per tree and per 

 bushel of cones. 



3. Seed study. Counts, weights and 

 measurements to determine size of seed; 

 number of seed (with chaff, mill-cleaned 

 and hand-cleaned) per pound and per 

 bushel of cones; cutting tests to deter- 

 mine purity. 



4. Genninalion. Tests made in the 

 greenhotisc dtiring the winter of 1912 

 were unsatisfactory. A sample of 300 

 seeds from each lot was therefore sown 

 in the nursery in the spring of 1913 for 

 outdoor germination, and this proved 

 perfectly reliable. Such a test has been 

 made each spring since 1913. and will 

 be repeated annually so long as there 

 remains stiflicient seed in any of the 



