16 MISC. PUBLICATION 99 2, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Muskrat Creek, Wyoming 



Muskrat Creek is south of Moneta, Wyo. Elevation ranges from 

 5,800 to 6,800 feet, and precipitation from 8 to 11 inches. The area 

 varies from flats to rough, steep slopes. Soils range from heavy soils 

 on salty flats to clay slopes and bluffs and sandy ridges and dunes. 

 Past grazing has depleted the area. The vegetation is mainly big 

 sagebrush with a sparse understory of needle-and-thread, streambank 

 wheatgrass, blue grama, and Indian ricegrass. There are several 

 areas of shadscale, saltsage, and other shrub species. 



Procedures 



Compressed earthern pellets containing crested wheatgrass and 

 yellow sweetclover seed were broadcast by airplane on an unprepared 

 seedbed during the winter and spring of 1948. Pellets averaged 1.1 

 per square foot over the 21,000-acre area. Crested wheatgrass 

 pellets averaged 5.16 seeds per pellet and 1.2 pounds of seed per acre. 

 Yellow sweetclover averaged 5 seeds per pellet and 0.25 pound per acre. 



Results 



In 1948, a good year, many crested wheatgrass seeds germinated 

 and produced seedlings. However, most of them died during the 

 summer and only scattered plants finally resulted from this seeding. 

 In 1961 on the more favorable sites, there was 0.8 plant of crested 

 wheatgrass per acre with a forage yield of 0.01 pound per acre. The 

 few reseeded plants were competing unsuccessfully with native vege- 

 tation. On an adjacent area where brush had been cleared off and 

 the site drilled to crested wheatgrass in the fall of 1948, there was 

 0.55 plant per square foot and 370 pounds of air-dry grass per acre 

 in 1961 and 511 pounds in 1962. 



Golliher Mountain, Nevada 



Golliher is a depleted rolling sagebrush-grass area 70 miles north- 

 east of Wells, Nev. Elevation is approximately 5,500 feet. 



Procedures 



The Golliher area was burned during the summer of 1948. The 

 burn was spotty, and numerous unburned islands of sagebrush re- 

 mained. Compressed pellets of crested wheatgrass were broadcast 

 by airplane in the fall on 15,000 acres. A small acreage of the burn 

 was drilled to crested wheatgrass. 



Results 



Examination during 1949 showed only a few seedlings of crested 

 wheatgrass from the pellet seeding on the large broadcast area. In 



