PELLET SEEDING 



on 



WESTERN RANGELANDS 



By A. C. Hull. Jr.. Ralph C. Holmgren. W. H. Berry, and Joe A. Wagner x 



Seed pellets for range seeding are designed to be broadcast by 

 airplane, usually on unprepared seedbeds. They are made by 

 enclosing seed in soil or other material, and have been used for 

 seeding more than 180,000 acres on western rangelands. Three types 

 of seed pellets have been used for range seeding: compressed, coated, 

 and extruded. Compressed earthen pellets, generally spherical, are 

 made by running a seed-and-soil mixture through four pressure disks 

 to form a hard, round, earthen pellet. Coated seed pellets are made 

 by coating individual seeds with successive layers of clay or other 

 finely powdered material. Extruded seed pellets are made by pressing 

 a seed-and-soil mixture through round openings to form cylindrical 

 pellets. 



Standard seeding recommendations for obtaining successful stands 

 of grass species have been developed through years of research. 

 These recommendations are (1) that the competing vegetation be 

 killed and (2) that the seed be covered (Hull and Stewart. 1948; 

 Stewart. 1949; Plummer et al. t 1955). 2 



Conventional seeding methods are slow, and many years will be 

 required to seed the large area of western rangelands where seeding 

 is needed. Therefore, there has been a constant search for quick and 

 low-cost seeding methods. 



Broadcasting seed by airplane was an early, and has been a 

 constant, effort for rapid range seeding (Teutsch, 1928; Stanton. 



1 The authors are. respectively: Range Conservationist, Crops Research Divi- 

 sion. Agricultural Research Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture: Rn _ 

 Conservationist. U.S. Forest Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture: Staff 

 A6E istant, Technical Review Staff. U.S. Department of the Interior: and Rai - 

 Conservationist, Bureau of Indian Affairs. U.S. Department of the Interior. 



2 Names followed by year of publication refer to References, p. 32. 



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