RESEEDING TO NATIVE FORAGE PLANTS 



57 



strategic places seed of the more desirable native plants which 

 once occupied the lands. Collecting seed of native pasture 

 plants, however, is tedious and expensive, and the \dability of 

 the seed is often low. For these reasons it seldom pays to seed 

 large areas. In the Wasatch Mountains of Utah large quantities 

 of seed of violet wheatgrass {Agropyron violaceiim) have been 

 gathered for 19 cents per pound, and of mountain bromegrass 

 {Bromus carinatus) for 24 cents per pound. A comb seed strip- 

 per is used in the collecting (Fig. 15). 



A more profitable plan, and one that the author has tried out 

 in many locahties in the Great Basin region, is that of " strip " 

 seeding. The area sown is small, often not over 15 or 20 rods 

 long and i or 2 rods wide. Before the sowing, the soil is thor- 

 oughly loosened up by harrowing or plowing. The plot is then 

 seeded heavily and the seed carefully covered by harrowing or 

 '' brushing." 



Fig. 16. — A PROTECTION STRIP SEEDED TO NATR^E FOIL-VGE PLANTS. 

 The luxuriant vegetation produces an abundance of seed which finds lodgment on the adjoining de- 

 pleted area, thereby aiding nature in replenishing the overgrazed cover. 



If the stock is not under control, the seeded strip is fenced, 

 preferably with woven wire or with material which will not 

 break the force of the wind (Fig. 16). If such plots are so 

 located that the mnd has full sweep, the seed developed within 



