738 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



which for lumber has not been tried, 

 such as E. resinifera, might prove good, 

 but then on the other hand their rates 

 of growth are so slow as to be of little 

 or no advantage over other hardwoods. 

 This matter should be made very 

 plain for the benefit of the great num- 

 ber of people who are investing in 

 eucalyptus planting. For fuel, wind- 



breaks, and soil protection, as well as 

 for many other purposes, the value of 

 Eucalyptus trees for California can 

 hardly be over-estimated, but the ficti- 

 tious claims which are sometimes made 

 for the blue gum and other species as 

 a lumber producing tree in less than 

 half a century of growth should be re- 

 futed so clearly that "he that runs may 

 read." 



NEW PLAN OF SEED EXTRACTION FROM PINE 



CONES 



During the last season the Service has 

 been experimenting with modifications 

 of a grain threshing machine and has 

 been successful in District 1 this sum- 

 mer in threshing white pine seed from 

 the cones when the latter were partially 

 dry. It is thought that by further modi- 

 fying an arrangement of the teeth in 

 the cylinder seeds may be successfully 

 threshed from cones like yellow pine, 

 Douglas fir, and even lodgepole pine. 

 If this proves possible the capacity of a 

 seed extracting plant can be increased 

 to ten times its former output. The 

 chief difficulty to overcome is the crack- 

 ing and spoiling of the seeds during 

 the process of threshing. A small ex- 

 perimental plant on the Kaniksu Na- 

 tional Forest was installed this spring 

 and produced results which are greatly 

 encouraging. Very little harm was done 

 to the seed and the cones were handled 

 at the rate of one thousand bushels per 

 day where formerly one hundred and 

 fifty bushels was a good day's work. 



Forest Service is experiment- 

 ing with new ways of extracting 

 the seed from the pine cones 

 cheaply and efficiently. The policy is 

 to collect seed in good seasons and in 

 localities where an abundant crop has 

 been produced. Thousands of bushels 

 are gathered in one place and from 

 these the seed has in the past been ex- 

 tracted by the slow process of heating 

 the cones artificially to make them ex- 

 pand, when the seed is shaken out, 

 collected, and cleaned. \Yhen con- 

 ducted in the winter on a large scale 

 the work is greatly delayed by the diffi- 

 culty of securing plenty of hot air, and 

 at the same time keeping it dry. The 

 cones give off their moisture and soon 

 surcharge the air to saturation and the 

 admittance of fresh air lowers the 

 temperature below the point of effective- 

 ness. For these reasons the capacity of 

 even large plants is usually limited to 

 turning out from one hundred to one 

 hundred and fifty bushels per day. 



JAMAICA'S FOREST WEALTH 



Recently the first cargo of hardwood timber shipped from Jamaica to the United States 

 was forwarded from Port Antonio. This timber was bought by an agent from New York 

 and consisted of mahogany and cedar trees. Two shipments have thus far been made and 

 other shipments are said to be contemplated. Although lumber does not comprise any con- 

 siderable part of Jamaican exports, some shipments of hardwood timber have been made 

 from Kingston for a number of years, chiefly to European ports. A body of something like 

 35,000 acres of forest land is in the parish in which Port Antonio is situated, and the govern- 

 ment is building roads for the development of this timber. The land is part of a purchase 

 made by the government from an improvement company which originally received the land as 

 part of a railway grant. The entire island is said to contain 400.000 to 500,000 acres of 

 forests. 



