6SO UTILIZATION OF THE FKUITS OF FOREST TREES. 



wooden scrapers to the chamber C, into which the trenches 

 lead. After all the seeds have been removed, the drums are 

 opened downwards and the empty cones removed by the same 

 means as the seed. The drums are turned at intervals of a 

 quarter of an hour, so that the seed soon falls into the cool 

 trenches and being at once removed is not exposed to the hot 

 air longer than is absolutely necessary. This rapid action 

 allows much greater heat to be applied to the cones than in 

 other establishments ; recent experience, however, shows that 

 they are not more effective than the latter, which on the 

 whole are preferable. Drum-sieves are used in Blankenburg 

 by Conrad Trumpf, and at Carolath in Silesia. 



3. Separation of Seed from the Cones by Steam. 



Cones are opened by steam, when the air round the trays in 

 which they are placed is heated by means of condensed steam. 

 Steam from a boiler outside the seed-kiln is supplied in pipes 

 running under the trays, it then becomes condensed owing to 

 the comparative coolness of the chamber containing the trays. 

 The steam-pressure being then considerably increased, the 

 heat acquired in the boiler is radiated into the drying-chamber 

 by the pipes. In order to increase the heating effect of the 

 pipes, their surface is considerably increased by conducting 

 them repeatedly up and down the drying-chamber. 



The three well-known wholesale seed-establishments of 

 Keller, Appel and Le Coq at Darmstadt, have been working 

 successfully on this system for many years. The first of these 

 seed-kilns was burnt in 1865, and up to that time there were 

 three tiers of piping under all the trays. This, however, did 

 not heat the air sufficiently ; in the new works erected there- 

 fore, two tiers of piping were placed under the trays, and the 

 other tier moved higher up between them. This gives 

 excellent results. The pipes are of wrought iron and are 200 

 meters long, with an exposed surface of 87 square meters. 

 The boiler is in a detached house, and also serves to drive 

 machinery used in separating seed from larch-cones ; it sup- 

 plies steam for heating the pipes and the resulting condensed 

 water flows back into the boiler. 



