EVERGREENS OF COLORADO 



53 



gathering may seem piratical from the squirrels' standpoint, it is not 

 necessarily so serious a matter for them as might at first appear, due to 

 their habit of storing much larger quantities, as a rule, than they require. 

 Of course, the thorough despoiling of all squirrel hoards in a locality 

 would mean serious deprivation for these animals during the following 

 winter. 



After gathering the cones, they should be spread out in a single layer 

 on canvass and exposed to the direct rays of the sun. This will usually 

 cause them to open in a short time, after which the seeds may be threshed 



Fig. 36. Alpine Fir. Mature cones breaking up, 



out by pounding the cones with a stick or flail. In large operations, as 

 carried on by the Forest Service, the cones after being dried in this man- 

 ner are passed through a long screen formed by nailing a coarse meshed 

 wire sieve around a rectangular frame, one end of which is slightly 

 elevated. The cones are run into the upper end of this screen and as 

 it is revolved slowly, the seeds are extracted and pass through the meshes 



