With only a few exceptions, the seed must be covered. The surface of western range soils usually dries out so quickly that seedlings cannot survive unless the seed is planted deep enough to assure reliable moisture in than on good cultivated land which has more moisture, but the small seeds the root zone. Under range conditions, grasses must be planted deeper of perennial grasses cannot push through if planted 1 1/2 to 2 inches deep, as are most cereal grains. Covering with 1/2 to 1 inch of soil-1/4 to 1/2 inch for small seeded species-usually gives best results. If planted deeper, except in sandy soils, seed and work will be wasted. Drilling with a disk grain drill is one of the best methods of seeding. The drill may be set to cut a furrow 2 or more inches deep to conserve moisture and protect the seedlings from drying winds, but the seed should not be covered more than 1/2 to 1 inch in the drill furrow. If seed must be broadcast, it should be covered by a disk or harrow unless it is a species, such as bulbous bluegrass, which does not require covering.

Under only a few conditions has broadcast seeding without soil covering been successful. On recent timber or brush burns, ashes may provide suitable covering. But the ashes must be at least 2 inches deep and not settled or washed by heavy rains before broadcasting. Also, some excellent stands have been obtained at low cost by broadcasting adapted species on deteriorated aspen ranges at the time of leaf fall. The falling leaves cover the seed and favor establishment.

Drilling directly into stands of such annual plants as Russian thistle, which makes most of its growth after the planted seedlings have become established, is one of the cheapest and best methods of reseeding. The Russian thistle acts as a nurse crop. But one must reduce or eliminate dense stands of big sagebrush, cheatgrass, tarweed, and other undesirable plants that compete directly with reseeded species for moisture. It is hard to get rid of such plants, but many can be reduced practically and economically. Shallow plowing with a wheatland or heavy one-way disk plow will kill 90 percent of the sagebrush and provide good conditions for drilling. Broadcasting can be used immediately after fall plowing. Where the soil is too rocky for wheatland plows, improved rail drags or heavy pipe harrows can be used to obtain 80 to 90 percent sagebrush kills. Prescribed burning is an excellent method for clearing big sagebrush, but it must be attempted only where the fire can be fully controlled and where erosion will not occur before the reseeded stand is established. For planting in dense cheatgrass and tarweed, methods that give assured success have not yet been perfected.

Planting should be done when the soil of the root zone will remain reasonably moist and temperatures will favor germination and growth for as long a period as possible, or until the seedlings are established. Where the spring growing period may be cut short by early summer drought, fall planting is best. Seed planted in late fall will germinate and make considerable growth before spring planting can begin. In regions where favorable fall rains will keep the upper few inches of soil moist until freezing weather, early fall planting is even better than late fall. Plantings made just before an early fall rain frequently grow as much before winter as do late fall plantings during the entire spring growing period. Thus a whole year may be saved in the establishment of the stand. In regions with good rains throughout the warm season, as in the mountains and in many parts of the Southwest, spring or summer planting is often best. Legumes and some other species should be planted in the spring in regions with thin snow cover and severe cold to avoid frost heaving and winter killing.

The final principle of range reseeding-apply wise-grazing management after seeding-is necessary to assure rapid development of the young plants and maintenance of the stand.

Grazing of newly seeded areas will kill many seedlings by trampling them into the ground or pulling them up before their. root systems are strongly developed. New seedings should generally be protected from grazing until the first seed crop is produced. This may take only 1 year under good conditions, or 2 or 3 years if weather and site are unfavorable. Thereafter, improper grazing will damage a reseeded range as surely as it deteriorated the original forage cover. Degree of utilization, season of grazing, distribution of use over the range, and handling of livestock should be based on the best available information. Where guides have not been developed for proper management of reseeded ranges, standards developed for comparable native ranges give a valuable basis for grazing. Stockmen should see that livestock are removed when they have taken only a half to three-fourths of the available leafage and that considerable stubble remains to protect the soil and maintain the plants. If plants begin to lose vigor, or if low-value species invade the stand, prompt adjustment in management should be made.

Costs and Benefits

The basic principles and detailed specifications developed by the new research attack make it possible to establish productive forage stands with reasonable assurance of success on many deteriorated western range lands. But the final test-the real value of range reseeding-rests in the answer to the question, Does it pay?

Reseeding costs vary greatly from one range type to another because of such differences as the accessibility of the area, the amount and kinds of seed used, the planting and preplanting treatment required, and the cost of fencing or otherwise controlling grazing of the reseeded stand. On previously cultivated land that has not been invaded by cheatgrass or sagebrush, hundreds of thousands of acres have been successfully drilled to crested wheatgrass, with no other treatment, for less than $2 an acre. On extremely depleted range, where drilling is not hindered by rough topography, rocky soil, or vegetation, the same method can be used at comparable costs. Where sagebrush or other competing vegetation must be reduced before planting, total costs amount to from $3 to $5 an acre for large plantings of several hundred acres or more. Costs are higher on smaller areas because heavy machinery cannot be efficiently used, and all fixed overhead charges, including planning, supervision, getting materials and machinery on the job, fencing, and the like, are proportionately greater. Most large areas seeded in the past few years cost less than one-half of the $8 to $10 an acre required before the results of the new research attack were available.

The annual value of increased forage production gained by reseeding selected areas amounts to as much as 50 cents an acre. The increased returns from grazing are generally greatest on ranges that supported only a fraction of their potential stands before seeding. The grazing capacity of ranges that have lost their good forage plants but retained good soil is commonly increased between one and two animal-unit months per acre by reseeding. Ranges that are only moderately depleted, or those whose potential forage production is limited by poor soil or low rainfall, have less scope for improvement. On many of the sites where reseeding is, or should be, considered, annual grazing capacity can probably be increased about one animal-unit month an acre. Smaller increases, but nevertheless worth-while, and not less than one-half animal-unit months an acre a year, can be expected on less favorable sites.

An animal-unit month of grazing is worth what you can get for it. The value varies with the type of range, its location, and the demand for forage. Most stockmen would agree, however, that good reseeded range is normally worth 35 cents an animal-unit month. Under present conditions 50 to 60 cents is commonly paid.

Under such relationships between costs and returns, careful reseeding of selected range areas is profitable. An investment of 2 to 5 dollars will yield between 17 and 35 cents annually from increased forage alone. Under proper management, such a return will continue indefinitely.

The increased grazing values received from successful range reseeding do not stop with the forage produced on the reseeded area alone. Often the reseeded range can be used during periods when forage would otherwise be extremely scarce. It thus rounds out the forage supply, fills a critical gap in the yearlong maintenance of livestock, and makes possible more efficient operation, higher calf and lamb crops, and greater livestock production. In many parts of the West, where spring forage is especially limited, crested wheatgrass range, which can be grazed 2 to 3 weeks before native range is ready, reduces the need for expensive feeding of hay or concentrates, helps to overcome too early and too heavy use of the native range, and insures ample milk for suckling calves and lambs.

In addition to improving grazing conditions, reseeding has a value for the protection it provides to the soil. The cost of erosion in the West, in terms of flooded valley lands, washed out railroads, highways, and other improvements, silted irrigation developments and municipal water supply systems, and devastated range and croplands, totals millions of dollars annually. Maintaining a dense stand of vegetation on range and watershed lands is one of the most effective means of controlling abnormal floods, excessive erosion, and dust storms. Reseeding, which provides a practical means for establishing a vegetative cover on denuded lands, has thus become an important tool in watershed improvement and management. Frequently floods can be controlled by treating the sore spots or critical areas that make up only a small portion of the entire watershed.

Stockmen, long faced with the unhappy necessity of reducing their herds to keep up with an ever dwindling forage supply, are finding a more pleasant and healthier outlook-the production of adequate forage through reseeding. Better and more intensive management of range lands, to make each acre contribute its full share of forage and play its part in soil protection, through the application of research findings, is the new objective. The prospect of fully productive ranges, abundant forage, and efficient and stable livestock production is the new outlook.

THE AUTHOR C. Kenneth Pearse has been assistant chief of the Division of Range Research of the Forest Service since August 1943. For the preceding 5 years he was in charge of range reseeding studies of the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Ogden, Utah, where many of the fundamental principles of reseeding and and semiarid western range lands were developed. He directed studies of the classification of sites for range reseeding, the testing of species for adaptation to the varied growing conditions, and the development of methods and machinery for effective and economical planting.