Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/180

 give a sense of verity to the claims of Messrs. Thorpe and Lombard quoted above and a sense of reasonableness to my own claim that an oak orchard of selected trees would be more productive than the existing agriculture of the American hills.

much information as possible on the seed production of oaks last fall, and the following data have been submitted:

Shasta Forest. Maximum seed production about 225 pounds per tree. A crop annually unless blighted, usually two crops in three seasons. Partial crop every year.

California Forest. Two and one-half bushels of acorns were collected at Summit Valley. T. 24 N., R. 13 W., M.D.M., from a tree 30" D.B.H., 60 feet high, and with a crown diameter of about 20 feet. This tree is at an elevation of 3,500 feet on a north exposure and receives considerable fog. Other trees of approximately the same size were estimated and show that two and one-half bushels is about the average crop.

Trinity Forest. One tree at a high elevation produced thirty pounds of acorns, and another under very favorable conditions produced three hundred pounds. Seed is borne at irregular intervals, but there is at least a partial crop each year.

Trinity Forest. One tree noted produced five hundred pounds of acorns, and another six hundred pounds. A third, rather small, produced two bushels. Crops occur at intervals of from three to four years. Fruit is frequently killed by frosts.

Sierra Forest. Maximum seed production about one hundred and seventy-five pounds per tree. Good crop one year out of three, and partial crop two years out of three

California Forest. Observations on twelve trees, average D.B.H. 26", indicates that the maximum production is about two bushels per tree and that there is a crop every two years.

"Sefiora Librado of Black Diamond, who is the widow of a Mexican who has cut wood in the Dragoons for the past thirty years and raised ten little Mexicans mostly on beyotes (acorns) and cactus (baked mescal), with an occasional piece of choice beef or venison as opportunity occurred, tells me that she has gathered two barley sacks of acorns from