CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 35 



the cones are not fertilized every year. After they are gathered the little cones are 

 piled close together and properly dried. They are then placed in bags together and 

 violently agitated hit up against a tree or anything else, and all the little seeds in 

 the cones are loosened and fall to the bottom of the bag. 



Mr. COXANT. Can you give us some idea of the cost of seed in the United 

 States ? 



Mr. JOLY DE LOTBINIERE. I will just tell you about this process first. After this 

 process has been gone through, you eliminate the little chaff and dirt that remains 

 with the seed by means of a fanning apparatus. There then remains the clean seed, 

 of which Mr. Knetchel was kind enough to send me several samples, and very nice 

 seed it was. I thought last spring I would try and procure some white spruce and 

 hemlock seeds. It happened to be a good year. The hemlock trees were full of seed, 

 as also were the white spruce. I went through sections where they had been cut and 

 selected about a barrelful of likely looking cones. I spread them over a dry attic 

 and heated them properly, and when I found the propitious moment had come I fol- 

 lowed Mr. Knetchel's plan of throwing them around in a bag. 



Mr. BERTRAM. What time did you gather the cones, Mr. Joly ? 



Mr. JOLT DE LOTBINIERE. I gathered them in the month of March. The Spruce 

 and hemlock seed is right for taking in the month of March. Until that time the 

 cones are closed. In April and May the cones open naturally and the seed is blown 

 away, but in March the seed is there. 



FATHER BIHKE. I find on that point that Dr. Fernow says that in spruce and all 

 other trees except pine, the period for the collection of seed is from September to 

 November. 



Mr. JOLY DE LOTBINIERE. Well, I would like to know what possible objection there 

 can be to collection in the spring, for the seed is just as good as it is later on in the 

 season. It may be more convenient in the autumn when there is no snow on the 

 ground, than in the spring. 



FATHER BURKE. Would not the spruce seed fall before March ? 



Mr. JOLY DE LOTBIXIERE. Not in Quebec. In the spruce growing district you 

 will find seeds in the cone even in March. 



FATHER BURKE. The seed of pine falls. 



M r. JOLY DE LOTBINIERE. You will not find any seed in the pine cone in the spring 

 but you will find seed of the hemlock and spruce at that time. I thought by giving 

 rhi- little rxp( rienee that if it was well known l-.y uur prominent -eedsiiien here lr>\v 

 easy it was to collect seed, both pine and hemlock, and other coniferous seeds, it 

 would be very easy for them to send out men or boys where the felling is going on and 

 make the necessary collection of cones, treat them as they are treated by the State 

 Forester of New York, and then we will all have an abundant supply of seed and 

 would not have to send to Germany or anywhere else, out get them in Canada. Win iv 



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