REFORESTATION OIT THE NATIONAL FORESTS. 
13 
EXTRACTING THE SEED.i 
After the cones have been thoroughly dried, the next step is to 
extract the seed. Merely to rake over the cones as they are drying 
in the sun or kiln is the simplest but least efficient method. It is 
most successful with western yellow pine, but even with this species 
better results can usually be obtained by shaking. The practice of 
placing cones in sacks and beating them with clubs to loosen the seed 
has also proved unsatisfactory. It requires too much time and yields 
only a little additional seed, which is apt to be of poor quality. 
Cone Shakees. 
To secure the maximum amount of seed, therefore, some method 
of shaking to release the seed from the opened cones must be used 
in nearly every case. Several kinds of cone shakers have been de- 
vised by members of the Forest Service. One in common use is 
made from a large dry-goods box, about 4 by 3 feet, provided at one 
end with a door made of slats so spaced as to permit only the closed 
cones to fall through. (PI. IV, fig. 1.) This door is fitted also 
with a removable wire screen of such sized mesh as to permit only 
the seed to escape, ordinarily ^ inch. The box is built on a pole as 
an axis and swung between two trees, or else mounted on a windlass. 
By a crank attached to one end of the axis the apparatus may be 
revolved and the seed loosened. Slats nailed lengthwise inside the 
box, or loose blocks of wood placed in the box with the cones, in- 
crease the jarring effect. After the seed has escaped to a sheet of 
canvas placed beneath the shaker, the screen should be removed and 
shaking continued in order to separate the still closed cones from the 
larger sized open ones. The closed cones can then be returned to the 
house for further drying. 
The cone shaker shown in Plate IV, figure 2, is a modification of 
the common potato sorter. It has been used extensively for yellow- 
pine cones, and, with slight modifications, for lodgepole-pine cones. 
The shaker is composed of a parallelopiped 16 feet long and about 4 
feet square at the ends, constructed on a shaft of 2-incli pipe long 
enough to provide for the supports at either end and for a crank 
with which to revolve it. Poultry net of |-inch mesh for yellow- 
pine cones and hardwood cloth of J-inch square mesh for lodgepole 
cones is stretched over the frame. The whole apparatus is made 
with a fall of about 6 inches, the end of the hopper being elevated 
that much to cause the cones to travel automatically through the 
shaker to the other end, where they fall out. The contrivance may 
either be operated by hand or by a gasoline engine. Cone shakers 
1 For more complete details, see Forest Service Circular 208, " Extracting and Cleaning 
Forest Tree Seed." 
