The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1936-04-07
Buffalo Grass
Seed Harvester
Said Successful
Perfection Is Held Step
Toward Cure Of Erosion
Damage in S.
Gcarvr;sht ,e36 by Omitted Pres,)

+ WASHINGTON, .ApFii z. (UP)
Successful operation of giant
vacuum cleaner for harvesting
Buffalo grass seed, which may
convert the present desert-like
Panhandle dust bowl into green
pasture land, was revealed last
night by soil conservation service
executives. FSS
The buffalo grass, once cover
of much of the land where dust
storms originate, is distinctive IN
that its steeds are-growh close 10
the ground. This presents a Spe!
cial difficulty to those who want
to collect the seeds and plant
them in erosiOn-damaged sec
tons.
Preliminary experiments indi-
Gated that the vacuum cleaner
principle was the only one that
had much chance of successful APP
pliation. Funds were made avail
able for tests at Manhattan and
TT. Hayes, Kansas, experimental
stations. Several types of machin-
cry which used suction to pick up
the seeds were built and tested.
The machine which offers the
most promise is mounted on
wheels with a nozzle just an inch
or two from the ground and
huge Cylinder and vacuum ma
chinery to suck up the seeds. The
cleaningS are collected in bags
and the seed screened out from
the dirt and other substances
caught up by the suction.
Test harveStings over 10 sep
arate plots showed that the ma
chine had an average efficiency
approximately Is per cent of
the total seed yield compared
with more than 80 per cent for
wheat harvester.
G. C. Fuller, who helped con-
struct the several types of these
vacuum sweeper harvesters and
represented the soil conservation
service at the tests, explained that
the difficulty in gathering the
seeds was that they were so close
to the ground, had to be pulled
up by the suction through part of
the growing grass and occasional
ly were actually imbedded in the
ground, especially if there had
been a recent rainfall which loos-
ed the seed bur and "cemented"
at into the mud. -....
Fuller said that better results
were obtained when the. grass had
been clipped before harvesting.
This showed that the Buffalo
grass could be grazed successfully
in fact, beneficially =, before
the seeds were collected.
Buffalo grass is native through
all the low rainfall belt from
Montana and North Dakota to
Texas, the section where valuable
ton soil is being blown away by
dust storms because there is lit
tie or no vegetation. This grass
is one of the principal hopes for
consevationists who believe that
once the dust bowl regions have
been put under cover of grasses,
the dust storms will stop and the
worst of the current erosion men
aces will have been tanned.
This grass has both male and
female plants. The male flowers
rise above the grass which never
grows more than four or FIVE
inches high and they appear as
ordinary seedheads. The female
flowers occur near the ground
and. the seeds. are formed there.
C.. r. Enlow, agronomy expert
of the soil conservation service
who was selected as one of the
party that toured Russian and
Turkestan deserts looking for
plants which might be successful
Ply adapted to- our newly born
deserts, said that Buffalo grass
was hard to, surpass as a soil
binder and stock feed. 1t has
high resistance to drought and
makes excellent feed for live
stock even in the winter because
the normal drying out seems to
have little effect upon its nutrl-
tive value.
The only difficulty, Enlow
said, was how to harvest the seeds
so they may be used to start new
plots. The grass naturally is a
perennial and does not need to
be seeded once a stand Is start
ed. The giant vacuum cleaner
NAV be the answer. If it is, Off
Gals are hopeful of success in
their battle against wind erosion
sooner than they originally ex-
peeted. To date, however, only so
pounds of Buffalo grass seed have
been obtained from all sources.