70 PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN 



depending upon the weather and the species. Where bad 

 weather will interfere with air-drying, the cones must be 

 dried under cover by artificial heat. This is the method 

 usually employed by professional seed collectors, and where 

 large quantities of cones are to be treated each year special 

 dry houses are constructed and fitted with elaborate drying 

 apparatus. The work can be done most cheaply with such an 

 establishment, but for the ordinary timber owner who expects 

 to collect seed only occasionally, a makeshift dry-house which 

 will answer the purpose can be fitted up inexpensively in any 

 unused building. The essential features are shelves or 

 trays 4 feet wide arranged around the walls of the room, one 

 above the other and separated about 8 inches apart, and a 

 heating stove placed in the center of the room. The shelves 

 may be made of burlap stretched tight, or, better still, of 

 wire screening of 1^-inch or %-inch mesh. 



After being subjected to a temperature not exceeding 110 

 Fahr. for from 24 to 48 hours, the cones will open, allowing 

 the seed to fall out when shaken or pounded. The seed when 

 separated from the cones is then mixed with a coarse gravel 

 in about the proportion of 4 to 1 and churned to remove the 

 wings. Finally, all foreign matter is removed by screening 

 and hollow seed blown out by passing it through an ordinary 

 fanning mill. 



Seeding Versus Planting 



The selection of the method of reforestation to employ, 

 whether direct seeding or planting, depends primarily upon 

 the character of the area to be restocked. Direct seeding is 

 usually considerably cheaper when the results are satisfac- 

 tory, but only on the more favorable sites where moisture and 

 soil conditions are right is there any assurance of success. 

 Even in such cases partial or total destruction of the seed 

 often results from birds and rodents. In exposed situations 

 where the soil is shallow, or where because of climatic con- 

 ditions soil dries out several inches deep during the grow- 



