3 io FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION July 



ing. Several days were spent collect- In collecting pifion cones the men 



ing this species. climbed the trees, and either pulled the 



Upon returning to Glorieta some days cones off or knocked them off with sticks 



later, the collecting of piiion pine seed and afterward gathered them into sacks, 



was begun. This was followed by the The cones were taken to a small log 



collecting of red fir, white fir, limber building, where they could be spread on 



pine, blue spruce, and western yellow shelves and dried. The shelves were 



pine. During this time more one-seed three feet and five and one-half feet 



juniper was obtained near Santa Fe, above the floor, and the heat was ap- 



and also small amounts of red cedar plied from a large fireplace in the corner 



were gathered near Glorieta. of the room. Four or five days with 



the room at a temperature of looto 125 



METHODS OF COLLECTING. degrees were required to open the cones. 



One-seed juniper (Juniperns mono- Then only the large cones opened, the 



sperma). Almost the entire amount of small inferior ones still remaining closed, 



seed of this species collected was ob- I consider this method an unsatisfactory 



tained within three miles of the city way of removing the seed, as there is 



of Santa Fe. The trees were of low, danger of getting the temperature so 



brush-like form, from four to eight feet high at times that the seed on the upper 



high. A piece of canvas was spread shelves may be slightly roasted, or at 



beneath the tree, and cards were used to least its vitality may be impaired, 

 remove the berries from the branches. Red fir (Pscudotsuga taxi/olio). The 



The cards were of simple construction, red fircones were plentiful. Trees from 



each consisting of a soft wood board 25 to 50 feet high, with branches down 



eight inches long by four inches wide, within a few feet of the ground, were 



with one end shaped into a handle and a found more convenient to collect from 



row of eight-penny nails driven through than larger trees. The cones were 



the board at the other end. The nails thickest near the tips of the branches 



were arranged at distances too small to and in the tops of the trees. After 



allow berries to pass between them, climbing the tree a hooked stick was 



though space enough for twigs to pass used to good advantage in getting hold 



through. of the tips of branches to draw them in 



The berries were emptied from the where the cones could be pulled off with 



canvas into sacks, and later worked the hands. A stick about four feet long 



over to separate the refuse material from with an iron hook fastened to it was 



them. For this purpose a sieve having found quite useful. 



quarter-inch mesh allowed most of the With the proper curve in the lower 



berries to go through, and those which hook it may be used advantageously by 



still clung to twigs could be rubbed pushing it along the side of a branch to 



through. This sieve removed the twigs, catch and break off cones from branches 



and by running the berries over a sieve that are too rigid to be bent toward the 



of ordinary window screen the leaves center of the tree and brought within 



and dust passed through, leaving the reach of the hands. Usually there are 



berries clean. The same method was a great many cones about the leader at 



employed in collecting and cleaning red- the top of the tree, where it is too small 



cedar seed. to bear the weight of the picker, and 



Pnwn pine (Pinus edulis). It was there is danger of breaking it if it is 



difficult to get pinon pine cones, for the bent down far enough to be reached, 



pine birds had visited nearly all the The lower hook of the tool enables the 



trees and taken the cones which con- picker to strip the leader upward with- 



tained good seed. The birds seemed to out breaking it. It is best to start at 



be able to discern accurately which ones the top of the tree and work down, for 



contained good seed. Under some trees in this way the cones which come from 



the ground was thickly strewn with the upper branches and lodge on their 



cones from which the birds had removed way down are shaken off when the 



the seed. lower branches are being picked ; thus 



