Bitterbrush Seed Collecting—By Machine or By Hand?

Abstract

Three methods of harvesting bitterbrush seed that yielded about 5,000 lb clean seed in 1963 were used by the Inyo National Forest. The most economical method of collecting the seed was by Forest Service crews collecting by hand; the most costly was by an experimental browse seed harvester; purchase from private seed collectors was intermediate in cost, but compared favorably with Forest Service crew hand collections. Cost ranged from $47,100 lb clean seed for certain hand collections up to $424 for some machine collections.