The Forester and His Work 101 



cold winters, the rough winds, and the heavy 

 snows. Partly for this reason, partly because 

 pine lumber is so useful, the seeds sown in the 

 forest nurseries are mostly seeds of pine trees. 



The cones are picked directly from the trees, 

 and they must be gathered before the middle of 

 October, because later they open on the trees and 

 their seeds drop out. So they are picked while 

 they are still closed, and spread on a canvas sheet 

 (Figs. 27 and 28), to open there in the warmth of 

 the autumn sunshine. After a day or two many 

 seeds fall out onto the canvas. These are gath- 

 ered, and then the partly empty cones go into a 

 machine called a cone-shaker which extracts all 

 seeds that have not fallen out already. Empty 

 cones come out of one end of this machine, and 

 seeds out of the other. 



The first duty of the forest service is to protect 

 the standing woods, and to provide that there shall 

 be enough forests for the needs of the future. But 

 because Congress has decided that the resources 

 of the national forests are to be used, and because 

 the forage produced is one of the resources, for- 

 esters take charge of the grazing within the forest 

 boundaries. The service has to manage so that 

 forage may be used without resulting harm to 

 the forest. 



Officers must see that range regulations are 

 enforced, that the forest in their charge has its 

 allotment of stock and no more, and that the drift 



