“Help Reforest Europe” from the January 8, 1925 Door County News
Help Reforest Europe
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Frank Graass Is Furnishing Seed to Devastated France and Belgium to Rebuild Forests
There is probably no larger gatherer of seeds in the United States than Frank Graass of this city. During the war the business had a slump, but it has been resumed with greater vigor than ever, as many of the great forests of Europe were destroyed during the conflict.
The gathering of seed by Mr. Graass was given the following write-up in the Milwaukee Journal of recent date:
Wisconsin is helping to reforest Europe, even if the state is doing little work of its own in that respect. Much of the seed of white, Norway and jack pine, of cedar, spruce, balsam, hemlock and tamarack, which Badger trees produce, is being collected, treated and then sold to Austria, Germany, France and Russia to reforest those countries. There is but little demand for the seed in this country.
Frank Graass, Sturgeon Bay, is in this somewhat unique need business. Every year he has farmers gather many bushels of the cones from these coniferous trees of the north woods and treats and extracts the seed from the cones. The cones are first dried and the seed is then further treated and the cull separated. The large cones of the white pine sometimes have three of four ounces of seed, often less. The seed is sold by the pound, which contains about 50,000 seeds. That does not necessarily mean 50,000 trees, because all seeds are not likely to germinate and then again it’s a long road from Graass’ cones to a full fledged tree. The seed brings from $1 to $20 a pound, depending on variety and grade. Of the pine cones, the jack and white pine are the easiest to collect. Norway pine is scarce and so the cones are fewer.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive