From The Supply Post Archives: The Love Machine

Jun 3, 2021 - 4 years ago

The article first appeared in Supply Post, April 1973

The B.C. Forest Service is operating a “Love machine” in Surrey, and it’s giving a real lift to thousands every day.

From The Supply Post Archives: The Love Machine — The unique “Love Machine” at B.C. Forest Service’s large nursery at Surrey can lift up to 420,000 tree seedings daily. Infant trees are relayed to large boxes on accompanying tractor-towed vehicle and rushed to nearby sorting and storage shed. B.C. Forest Service photo.

Actually it’s a seedling harvesting apparatus, and it’s the only one of its kind in Canada. It’s manufactured by Love Engineering Ltd. in Washington state, and can lift approximately 420,000 seedlings a day.

The remarkable machine is being used at the Forest Service’s 465-acre nursery in Surrey, and in the words of Jim Sweeten, forester-in-charge of the nursery, “is doing a remarkable job.”

Weighing about two-and-a-half tons, the seedling harvester is pulled by tractor which in turn provides hydraulic power needed to harvest the young trees from their beds.

Beneath the harvesting machine a five-foot steel blade cuts under the roots of the seedling beds. Almost simultaneously a series of rubber-coated belts lift the infant trees individually from the ground; a severe vibration shakes the soil from their roots; and they wind up on a platform. From there they go onto endless belts which deliver them to large boxes on an accompanying tractor-towed vehicle.

Quickly Packed

Within minutes after being lifted from the ground, the seedlings are rushed to a nearby sorting shed where a battery of women workers quickly sort, select, bundle them (in batches of 50) and pack them in cardboard containers ready for storage in specially refrigerated rooms.

The entire harvesting complex, Mr. Sweeten explains, requires a crew of seven — the tractor driver, a machine operator, and five women. In one day “Love machine” does the work of 50 to 60 lifters, all of whom are now working in the relative comfort of the sorting shed.

Many Values

The machine has many values. It’s fast and efficient, and performs in all weather conditions. “In the past the seedlings were lifted by hand, and mostly by women,” the forester-in-charge said, “and let’s face it, weather conditions can be pretty grim when we’re doing this kind of work.”

And from a more practical point of view, there is another tremendous value in the speed in which the infant trees can now be lifted. The time their roots are actually exposed to drying and damaging air is reduced to a few minutes.

“There is less damage to the seedlings’ root systems this way than any other method we have ever used,” Mr. Sweeten commented.

He said careful records were being kept on every aspect of the “Love machine”. It’s possible, he indicated, the Forest Service might acquire a second one for one of more of its seven other nurseries in B.C.

120 Acres Of Seedbeds

The Surrey Nursery was acquired by the British Columbia Forest Service late in 1968, with development starting early the following year. Today there are 120 acres of seed beds, with another 90 acres being prepared for production this fall. The nursery rows Douglas fir and spruce seedings for the province’s reforestation program, and this year’s production will be about 15 million trees.

Next year’s figures will be close to 28 million, and the nursery has a target of 40 million seedlings by 1975.

Supply Post April 1973