﻿WHITE PINE UNDER FOREST MANAGEMENT. 49 



is used. The cones should be stirred frequently, and those which 

 appear shrunken or wilted removed. Progress in drying will be indi- 

 cated by the opening of the cones, announced by an audible pop or 

 snap. When preliminary drying is completed the cones should be 

 taken to a second room to be fully opened by artificiaLheat. This 

 room, which must be reasonably air-tight, should contain a stove in 

 one corner, with two pipes extending from a double elbow across the 

 room and level with the top of the stove. Above the pipes should be 

 tiers of wooden trays with bottoms of wire mosquito netting arranged 

 one above the other, so that the heat will rise through them. A 

 temperature of about 100° F. may be maintained in the room without 

 injury to the seed. Before being placed in the trays, however, the 

 cones should be screened, in order that no loose seed will be subjected 

 to the heat. When the cones nearest the stovepipe are dry they 

 should be removed, and the upper trays dropped down, while the 

 empty ones should be refilled and inserted above. 



When nearly all are open the cones should be removed from the 

 drying room, thrashed thoroughly with a flail, and screened. The 

 screen should have a ^-inch mesh and a frame about 6 feet long by 3 

 feet wide. The seeds and debris which fall through it should then be 

 rubbed through a final screen with a mesh of about % inch. This will 

 break off the seed wings and remove the larger particles of dirt and 

 pitch. The seeds and finer particles which pass through the last 

 screen should then be run through a fanning mill, which will remove 

 all the wings and dirt and leave the clean seed ready to be sowed or 

 stored. Each bushel of cones will yield from one-half pound to a 

 pound of clean seed, running from 26,000 to 30,000 seeds to the pound. 



Seeds may be stored over winter by inclosing them in a paper or 

 cloth bag (not oiled) and suspending them in a cool, dry room with a 

 free circulation of air. Cellars and stables are not good storage 

 places. If thoroughly dry, seeds may also be stored in large, tight 

 tin cans or in bottles, preferably in an unheated building. 



THE FOREST NURSERY. 



Where the area to be planted is small, it is better to purchase 

 planting stock from dealers than to incur the trouble and expense of 

 nursery culture. If, however, the area is so large that planting 

 operations will extend over several years, stock may be raised at a 

 considerable saving. 



The size of the nursery depends upon the number of plants to be 

 produced each year and the length of time the young trees are to 

 be left in the beds. In most planting operations stock 3 years old 

 should be used. To enable them to develop a strong and compact 

 root system the seedlings should be transplanted when 2 years old 

 from the beds in which the seed germinated to rows in another part 

 6738°— Bull. 13—14 4 



