16 
Imported seed cleaning 
machine at Manning 
Seed Company Plant, 
Roy, Washington. 
latitudes at which Douglas fir is commonly planted in Europe. (The International 
Boundary between Canada and the United States follows the 49th parallel.) There- 
fore, the effects of elevation of origin of the Douglas fir on growth may be expected 
to be correspondingly less than, for example, on Scots pine in Sweden. 
Here, then, is how CERTIFIED MANINGSEED is actually collected. Each 
year, more than 25,000 miles are covered in road reconnaissance and an almost equal 
survey is made by air of the major forests extending from Alaska to California, to 
determine the areas in which it will be practicable to make cone collections. It serves 
also as a basis of first-hand information on which Manning Seed Company can fore- 
cast to its customers the probable seed crops from specific areas. 
When a cone crop appears fairly certain, cone collecting units are then estab- 
lished in each important area by Company representatives known as ‘‘Producers’’— 
men who reside in the region; these men have had years of experience in the important 
techniques of cone collecting, and are able to employ reliable cone pickers. Orders 
for certain quantities of cones are then sent to these Producers, calculated on the 
anticipated demand for MANINGSEED from these particular regions. It is for this 
reason that orders should be placed well in advance of the picking season, which is 
naturally short, since seed once shed is never recovered for the selling market. 
While Douglas Fir is the dominant species of this region, and the one most 
extensively studied, it is not the only species from the Pacific Northwest. Seed origin 
is vastly important to those who plant other species of conifers native to Western 
