First the Seed, Then the Tree 



129 



Winter: Ashes (except Berlandier), 

 yellow birch, the boxelders, catalpas, 

 Osage-orange, black spruce, Norway 

 spruce, sycamores, walnuts. 



Any season: Aleppo pine, bishop 

 pine, jack pine, lodgepole pine, Monte- 

 rey pine, pond pine, sand pine. 



Forest seeds commonly are collected 

 from standing trees. Most tall trees 

 must be climbed and the fruits or seeds 

 detached by hand picking, by cutting 

 them off, or by knocking them off. In 

 hand picking, the fruits usually are 

 placed in containers. If the fruits are 

 cut or knocked off, they are usually 

 caught in sheets spread below. Seeds 

 usually are hand-picked or flailed from 

 small trees or shrubs without climbing 

 them. 



It is usually cheaper to collect seeds 

 from felled rather than from standing 

 trees. The collector must, however, 

 gather seeds only from trees cut after 

 the fruits have begun to ripen. 



Twenty or thirty years ago conifer 

 cones frequently were gathered from 

 squirrel hoards in the Lake States and 

 the West. This is still done to some 

 extent. However, seed collection from 

 rodent caches is of limited usefulness 

 because the parent trees are unknown, 

 hoards are difficult to find consistently, 

 and few species are included. Some 

 successful collectors gather squirrel-cut 

 cones from the ground. 



Seeds or fruits are gathered from 

 water surfaces or from drifts along the 

 shores for a few tree species, such as 

 baldcypress and some of the willows. 



Fruits should be taken to the extrac- 

 tion point soon after collection. Fleshy 

 fruits should neither be crushed nor 

 dried for very long. Others should be 

 spread out and dried partially before 

 shipment. 



To PREVENT spoilage, to conserve 

 space and weight in the shipment and 

 storage, and to facilitate handling and 

 sowing, seeds of many species must be 

 separated from the fruits and cleaned 

 of fruit parts and debris. 



Seeds are separated from the fruits 

 by drying, threshing, depulping, or 



cleaning procedures such as fanning 

 and sieving. 



The simplest method of drying is to 

 spread the fruits in shallow layers so 

 that there is free circulation of air 

 across and around each fruit. Where 

 the climate is damp, or the quantities 

 of fruit great, drying is usually done 

 under a roof. 



Artificial heat is necessary to open 

 some cones readily. Artificial drying 

 ordinarily is done in special kilns which 

 aim to provide the highest dry heat that 

 the seeds can stand without injury. 

 Two general types of kilns are used for 

 extracting seeds from cones: The 

 simple convection and the forced-air. 

 The former has long been in use; the 

 latter has been developed since 1934. 

 Newly developed in Canada is a kiln 

 using batteries of infrared lamps. 



Convection kilns depend upon the 

 natural rise of heated air through cones 

 spread on trays placed directly above 

 the source of heat. Forced-air kilns 

 are more complicated. Heat and hu- 

 midification are supplied by steam, 

 and fans provide forced circulation of 

 the warm air. Temperature and the 

 humidity are controlled automatically 

 by an electrically operated recorder- 

 controller. Forced-air kilns are more 

 efficient than convection kilns. For 

 example, it takes from 24 to 72 hours 

 to extract seeds from red pine cones in 

 convection kilns as compared to 5 hours 

 in forced-air kilns. However, forced- 

 air kilns are more expensive and 

 require skilled men to install and oper- 

 ate them. The infrared kilns give prom- 

 ise of efficiency and relative cheapness 

 and ease of operation. 



Upon their removal from the kiln, 

 cones are run through tumblers re- 

 volving boxes or drums with screened 

 sides to shake out the seeds. 



The seeds of many dry fruits must 

 be separated from the bunches, pods, 

 or capsules in which they grow. The 

 simplest methods are flailing or tread- 

 ing under foot. Sometimes agricultural 

 machinery can be used. Frequently, 

 however, special apparatus is neces- 

 sary for fully efficient extraction. Two 



802062 49- 



-10 



