148 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



trees and collected together by the squirrels. The quantity of cones which 

 may be gathered from a single squirrel hoard ranges from a few bushels to a 

 dozen or more bushels. Among the large hoards recorded is one that yielded 

 about sixteen bushels of yellow pine cones, another that yielded about fifteen 

 bushels of Douglas fir cones. 



At different times a more or less hysterical protest has been raised by 

 some people against this so-called robbing of the squirrels. Persons interested 

 in the preservation of our wild animals have alleged that this method of 

 collecting cones would result in the starvation of the squirrels. If such were 

 the case, it would indeed be a calamity. As a matter of fact, such gathering 

 of cones from the squirrels' hoards as is done, while it may inconvenience 

 the squirrels, has no disastrous results. The squirrels continue their labor 

 after a hoard has been cleaned out, and in a very short time have a supply on 

 hand equal to that which has been lost. In collecting cones, the gatherers 

 work over an area only once, and then seek new fields, leaving the squirrels 

 ample time to recuperate their losses before winter sets in. It would require 

 a very strenuous and vindictive campaign on the part of man to steal from 

 the squirrels of any locality so persistently as to reduce the winter's food 

 supj)ly of these animals to a dangerous point. Assuredly the wanton destruc- 

 tion of squirrels' hoards is a thing to be condemned, but so long as man takes 

 for himself only a portion of their supplies, and that for a most useful and 

 beneficial purpose, the practice should need no further justification. 



EXTRACTING THE SEED. 



After the cones have been gathered, by any of the methods which have 

 been described, and placed in sacks, they must be transported to some central 

 point where the seed may be extracted. The sacks of cones gathered in the 

 woods are carried out to the nearest trail or wagon road. Frequently the 

 cones have to be collected in such inaccessible localities that it is necessary 

 to pack them for miles on horses or burros, which is, of course, a tedious and 

 expensive method of transportation. As soon as a road is reached the cones 

 are loaded into wagons. In one region, the Black Hills of South Dakota, 

 where about twenty-five thousand bushels of yellow pine cones were collected 

 during the past fall, pine cones were shipped by railroad, in carload quan- 

 tities, to a central point, the railroad company making a new rate for this 

 unusual class of freight. 



After the cones have been gathered in large quantities at a central point, 

 the most expensive i^art of the work of collecting seed is accomplished. But 

 the work of extracting the seed from the cones, and cleaning the seed, remains 

 to be done, and this part of the operation requires much care and attention. 



Mention has already been made of the natural opening of cones allowed 

 to remain upon the trees. The ripening of cones is brought about by the 

 sun's heat, as with all other fruits, and when the cones are fully ripened 

 they become completely dried out and the cone scales have curled back, 

 releasing the seed, which is distributed widespread through the agency of the 

 winds. Each little seed has attached to it a small membranaceous wing, 

 that serves to carry it through the air to a greater or less distance from the 

 parent tree, dei)ending upon the velocity of the wind and the weight of the 

 seed. 



To obtain the much desired seed, it is, then, necessary to open up the cones 

 that have been collected. There are two methods ordinarily employed to 

 accomplish this, one method following Nature's way, takes advantage of the 

 sun's light and heat, and the other method employs artificial heat. 



In the first method the cones are spread out thinly upon canvass sheets 

 laid u])on the ground, preferably on a gentle slope toward the southwest 

 and the sun. Since the cones must be spread thinly, a large number of 



