22 REFORESTATION ON THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 



One in common use is made from a large dry-goods box, about 4 by 3 

 by 3 feet, provided at one end with a door made of slats so spaced 

 as to permit only the closed cones to fall through (PI. IV, fig. 2). 

 This door should be fitted also with a removable wire screen of such 

 sized mesh as to permit only the seed to escape. The box should be 

 built on a pole as an axis and swung between two trees, or else 

 mounted on a windlass. By a crank attached to one end of the axis 

 the apparatus may be revolved and the seed loosened. Slats nailed 

 lengthwise inside the box, or loose blocks of wood placed in the box 

 with the cones, increase the jarring effect. After the seed has escaped 

 the screen should be removed and shaking continued to separate the 

 still closed cones from the larger sized open ones. The closed cones 

 can even be returned to the house for further drying. 



The cone shaker shown in Plate IV, figure 1, is a modification of 

 the common potato sorter, and has been used extensively for yellow- 

 pine cones, and, with slight modifications, for. lodgepole-pine cones. 

 The shaker is composed of a cylinder 16 feet long and about 4 feet in 

 diameter, constructed on a shaft of 2-inch pipe long enough to pro- 

 vide for the supports at either end and for a crank with which to 

 revolve the cylinder. Poultry net of }-inch mesh for yellow-pine 

 cones and hardware cloth of J-inch square mesh for lodgepole cones 

 is stretched over the cylinder frame. The whole apparatus is made 

 with a fall of about 6 inches, the end of the hopper being elevated 

 that much to cause the cones to travel automatically through the 

 shaker to the other end, where they fall out. The contrivance may 

 either be operated by hand or by a gasoline engine. Cone shakers of 

 this type may be made to " take down," so that they can readily be 

 transported from place to place in the woods. 



Even after cones have been shaken in the ordinary way considerable 

 quantities of seeds still adhere to them. To obtain this additional 

 seed the cones ma}^ be run through the regular grain separator of a 

 steam thrashing machine. (PL V, fig. 2.) The quantity of seed ob- 

 tainecl in this way will in most cases fully justify the expense. 



Even after the seed is separated from the cones it has mixed with 

 it much foreign matter, such as small twigs, pieces of cone scales, and 

 membranous w r ings. Much of this foreign material can be screened 

 out to some extent, but to loosen the wings from the seed requires 

 further treatment. Sometimes the seeds may be forced through a 

 wire screen, which will scrape off the wings. A good plan is to 

 sack the seed loosely and then knead it, after which it should be run 

 through a fanning mill fitted with screens of the proper mesh. (PL 

 V, fig. 1.) In small operations the seed may be cleaned by pouring 

 it from one receptacle to another in a current of air. 



