Guthrie- Smith. — Grasses of Tutira. 509 



in fern and manuka, but which twenty-five years ago was 

 probably the last vestige of the herbage, that succeeded the 

 ancient totara forest which at one time covered this region. 

 The 1,500 acres of artificially sown grass would seem, therefore, 

 to have carried the balance of four thousand five hundred or 

 more. That it did so I am convinced, for not only were the 

 sheep a smaller breed, but, as there was almost no fencing, 

 only the most fertile, most sweet, and most warm portions of 

 the run were worked by stock. These few spots of really good 

 land were the old Native clearings and gardens, the long narrow 

 strips immediately beneath the limestone outcrop (the ancient 

 ocean-floor), sheep-camps, papa slips, and the northern and 

 western faces of the best hills. 



During the succeeding years up to the present date two syn- 

 chronous processes have been going on, the one the " breaking 

 in " and surface-sowing of new blocks, the other the deteriora- 

 tion of the blocks already sown. For many seasons the run has 

 passed successively through the phases of rapid increase, slight 

 increase, balance, slight decrease, and, lastly, rapid decrease. 



The lessened germinating - power of surface - sown English 

 grasses has been mentioned ; and experience leads me to be- 

 lieve that the second sowing of inferior lands that have got 

 rough with fern and been again burnt is a partial failure, while 

 a third sowing is almost pure waste of seed. Even those that 

 germinate make a miserable appearance, and are mostly destroyed 

 by winter frosts and rain. The ground is, in fact, " sick " of 

 these alien species, just as during the later years it has become 

 " sick " of thistles, the seeds of which do not germinate, though 

 they must be thick on the ground, for immediately the soil is 

 stirred they appear in thousands. (This past season — 1907 — I 

 notice crops of thistles again appearing to some extent, but only 

 on sheep-camps, and not, as used to be the case, over entire 

 hillsides and over hundreds of acres.) 



Lastly, the later " spring " in the grass and the later lamb- 

 ings may, I think, in large measure be attributed to this deterio- 

 ration of the turf. In the eighties and early nineties a change 

 about mid- August could be quite easily detected in the colour 

 of the warm hillsides, and about that date there was a slight 

 but quite perceptible new growth. Nowadays it is the first 

 week in October before much " spring " can be observed in the 

 turf. For many years, too, our lambings have been getting 

 later, owing to the elimination, I believe, of the more nutritious 

 grasses and the consequently later date of the ewes coming in 

 season. Sheep-farmers will understand that in the case of later 

 " springs " and later, lambings I have not forgotten to take into 

 account the results of heavier and lighter stocking. With 



