Page:Growing Black Locust Trees.djvu/10

8 there is a continuing loss of seed from the pods. Hand picking from a stepladder or short ladder is a common method. If cutting of trees is in progress, the pods may be picked most easily. When dried, the pods may be opened by flailing, beating, or rubbing. In large operations seeds are most easily extracted by using a grain separator or threshing machine, suitably adjusted for the purpose. Beating a strong sack filled with dry pods with a flail or club is a good method for small quantities.

The cost of collecting and cleaning seed varies widely with the quantity and method used. Under fair conditions, on an average, a man may collect about 2 pounds of pods per hour, or 14 to 20 pounds per day, which should yield from 3 to 5 pounds of clean seed. Scant data are available on the cost of extracting and cleaning black locust seed, but in fair-sized operations it should not cost over 3 cents

per bushel. When a small home-made thresher with a capacity of 50 pounds of dry pods per hour was used, the cost was about 4 cents per pound of seed.

A bushel of pods weighs from 7 to 14 pounds, averaging about 10 pounds. The seed yield from different lots of seed varies greatly, ranging from 2 to 5 pounds of clean seed per bushel of pods, probably averaging about 3 pounds. This is at the rate of a pound of clean seed from 3½ pounds of pods. One quart of seed weighs from 1.4 to 1.8 pounds—or an average of 1.6 pounds. A pound of seed contains usually from 20,000 to 25,000, varying with the average size and density.

Black locust seed differs widely in its germination capacity. Sometimes only from 10 to 20 seeds out of every hundred germinate successfully; other lots of seed may have as many as 40 to 60 and occasionally 90. The average is low, perhaps from 30 to 40. The probable cause is the variation in hardness or density of the seed