Kansans Glean Grass Seed to Fight Erosion

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 14, 9 October 1937, Page 18

Kansans Glean Grass Seed to Fight Erosion

SALINA. — Thousands of pounds of native grass seeds are being harvested in this region for use in the Great Plains erosion warfare. The bluestems, western wheat, side oat grama — these and other grasses that made the plains country a paradise for cattlemen, are being drafted for use in stopping • the march of drifting sands.and checking the advance of soil-devouring gullies. Harvesting methods vary from that of hand stripping to the use of giant power strippefs that glean the seed from 15-ft>ot swaths as they roar across native grass meadows. Hand stripping, it is pointed out, is being done -in tho main by individual farmers who tried to buy seeds last spring and were. left "holding empty sacks." These farmers need only the limited quantities of seeds that can be harvested by hand. The nursery division of the Soil ' Conservation Service, with a need ' for thousands of pounds, of seeds for demonstrational plantings, is using power strippers. . • , . Seeds of native grasses are in demand for planting on - eroding fields being taken - oht of - cultivation, - on pastufes ■ wliere grass stands have been thinned by the coinbined forces fof drought and overgrazing, and on.strips in cultivated 'fields to 'check" b'oth ,wind and water, erosion.' ,In th0 last two years large acreages of -grasses have been planted on .drainage basins of farm ponds1' to protect" the pohds from silting. ... , =;• i . i t .