PELLET SEEDING OX WESTERN RAXGELAXDS ] f) 



Procedures 



Both areas were burned by accidental fires the summer before 

 seeding. They were broadcast by airplane to compressed earthen 

 pellets during the period October 28, 1947, to January 16, 1948. 

 The species used were crested wheatgrass and yellow sweetclover at 

 a ratio of 3:1. Field counts gave 0.4 pellet per square foot with a 

 range from to 1.6. One 1,600-acre area was seeded twice and 

 another 800-acre area three times to check the effect of seeding rates. 

 Many temporary and permanent sample plots were established to 

 check results. 



Results 



Seedling counts in May 1948 at Thorn Creek showed an average 

 of one plant of crested wheatgrass per 20 square feet and one 

 sweetclover plant per 167 square feet. Only sweetclover was found 

 at Rattlesnake; density was the same as at Thorn Creek (Tisdale 

 and Piatt, 1951). By 1950 the sweetclover had disappeared; and the 

 crested wheatgrass at Thorn Creek had increased slightly, mainly 

 as the result of good precipitation during 1948 (Moomaw et al.. 

 1954). 



In 1961 there was only one plant of crested wheatgrass per 5,000 

 square feet at Rattlesnake Butte. On the more favorable Thorn 

 Creek burn there was an average of one plant per 110 square feet on 

 the flats and one plant per 197 square feet on the slopes. Most of 

 these plants were suppressed by native vegetation. This number of 

 plants, after 13 years, is far from a successful seeding (fig. 4). 



Figure 4. — A, fourteen years after broadcasting compressed pellets by air- 

 plane, Rattlesnake Butte is mainly cheatgrass, with an occasional plant 

 of crested wheatgrass. B, an adjacent area, which was plowed and drilled 

 to crested wheatgrass, has been grazed for several years and still has a good 

 stand, even in a dry year. 



