75-2 HUSKIN(; AND CLKANING CONIFEROUS SEEDS. 



Section I. — Scotch Pine and Spruce Seed. 

 There are various methods for obtaining Scotch pine and 

 spruce seed which are all based on the application of heat to open 

 the cones, and thus allow the winged seeds to escape. Either 

 solar heat, hot-air chambers or steam may be employed. 



1. Solar heat. 



Cones to be opened by solar heat are placed on wire-gratings, 

 arranf^ed one above the other and freely exposed to the sun's 

 rays, or in portable bins covered by wire-gratings. By 

 occasionally shaking the gratings the seeds are made to fall on 

 cloths, or into portable bins, placed beneath them. 



A simple method is to place the cones on large cloths spread 

 in 11 dry place exposed to the sun's rays. The seeds can then 

 easily be sifted from the cones. 



Although the success of methods employing merely solar heat 

 depends on favourable weather, and the seeds must remain 

 unutilized for a whole summer and consequently fresh seed is 

 not available for sowing, yet this sufficed for the small demand 

 of earlier times. It is at present rarely employed,* although 

 certainly preferable to all other methods as regards quality of the 

 seed. 



2. Hot-air Cliamhers, or Seed-Jdlns. 



\yhenever the cones are opened by means of artificial heat, 

 they are exposed on wire-gratings in hot-air chambers to tem- 

 peratures of 100°, 112° and 145° F., the air being kept as dry as 

 possible until all the seed has been separated. The heat is 

 supplied either from furnaces in the chambers themselves, or by 

 heating apparatus in another chamber from which hot air passes 

 into them. Most German seed-husking establishments follow 

 this method. 



It may be objected, that seed when exposed too long to a 

 heat of 100- F. and more, becomes overdried and loses its 

 germinative power. This often happened formerly when the 



* [Tlic Frcncli secd-cstablisliiuent at Moutiers employs solar heat for spruce 

 seed.— Boi'i'i:.] 



