508 Transactions. 



like watching the face of a constant companion — the daily 

 difference is imperceptible, yet revert to any day ten or twenty 

 vears back and the alteration is at once marked and striking. 

 So it is with all processes of nature ; and the condition of one 

 particular paddock at Tutira is marked to me specially by 

 two events — the one in 1882, the other in 1884. On the former 

 date Vermont merino rams were bought from an Otago stud 

 flock. A paddock was " spelled," or shut up for them, and 

 into it they were turned on arrival. They throve very badly, 

 although we had confidently reckoned on their improvement 

 owing to the fine sward of rye- grass. The year 1884 was one of 

 those dry seasons during which less than 20 in. of rain fell during 

 the year in parts of Hawke's Bay, and when even the Tutira 

 hillsides began to dry up. We were trying everywhere to take 

 advantage of this dry weather, yet no attempt even was made 

 to burn this part of the run, owing to the mat of white-clover. 

 To-day in this same paddock rye-grass is almost altogether 

 absent and white-clover is almost gone ; they make a very 

 miserable show when compared with the exuberant growth of 

 over twenty years ago. Now the turf consists of Danthonia 

 pilosa, D. semiannidaris, Microlcena stipoides, ratstail, Poa pra- 

 tensis, Bromus arvensis, Festuca myuros, Aira caryophylla, a pro- 

 portion of fog and cocksfoot, a patch or two of florin, stunted 

 trefoil and Trifolium arvense, sorrel and the smaller plants that 

 now form a considerable proportion of to-day's sward, members 

 of the geranium family, Cotvla asiatica, oxalis, &c. 



These are particular instances of one paddock ; other evi- 

 dence will cover the whole run — the evidence of the bees. In 

 the eighties and early nineties every hollow tree and every 

 crannied rock on Tutira contained a colony of bees, and in the 

 eighties more especially there were scores of swarms hang- 

 ing in low manuka and tutu bushes. The country was then 

 actually grey with the heads of white-clover, and the bees pro- 

 spered accordingly. At this present date all the rocks are empty 

 of bees, and though clover is not rye-grass, yet its disappear- 

 ance (comparatively speaking) will show the great alteration in 

 the constituents of the surface soil, and make it easy to under- 

 stand how rye-grass too should have so largely disappeared. 



Evidence even more convincing is the smaller amount of stock 

 carried. Referring to the old station diaries, I find that when 

 only about 1,500 acres of ground had been sown seven thousand 

 sheep passed through the shed. Of these, between two and 

 three thousand survived, rather than lived, on the con- 

 glomerate or sandstone ranges. There they just managed to 

 exist on tutu, fern-root exposed in wild-pig roofings, and 

 patches of native grass — grass that has since been smothered 



