274 



but also could siippl}- all the hay needed for the plantations and 

 thus stop a source of weed supplv to these Islands. 



Rhodes grass seeds very heavily and to some extent con- 

 tinuously throughout the year. The main crop ripens about ^lay 

 and June, but it still continues to flower. The seed germinates 

 very readily and the young plants stand a great amount of d'v 

 weather whilst young. It will not stand' much stocking in its first 

 stages. Horses and sheep are especially hard on it, as they pull 

 ofif the long runners which are a characteristic of this grass, be- 

 fore thev get properlv rooted and bite ofif the whole top of the 

 plant. Some roots planted in a mass of honohono and not under 

 stock grew into strong bunches laden with seed and promised 

 to- entirely get the better of the other plant. 



I feel sure tliat with Paspalum dilatatum on the uplands, and 

 Rhodes grass liay grown on the drier country and fed to stock 

 with kiawe beans, the markets here will eventually be supplied 

 with prime beef and" mutton at all seasons of the year, instead of 

 the present condition of all the ranches having their stock fat at 

 the same time. 



It will be found best, I thin.k, in cultivating this grass for hay 

 to plow and cultivate the fields and sow the seed, as then the 

 fields will be levelled and ilin.ia and other shrubs got out. It 

 seeds so enormously that a very small amount of seed only is 

 necessary for a star^ and this can easily be obtained here from 

 ranchers growing it. or from Australia. The introduction of 

 Chloris gayana and of Paspalum dilatatum alone, were worth 

 all the expense, effort and disappointments in the experiments 

 connected with the introduction of new grasses on Molokai. 



Astrebia pcctinata: Mitchell grass. This is one of the best of 

 the Australian native grasses, where it is prized as a fattening 

 grass even when dry, and it is also cut for hay. Air. A. W. Carter 

 introduced this grass here and I have found it in its second year 

 of growth probably the best drought resisting grass we had on 

 the ranch ; I could not find a single plant killed by the drought of 

 1906, and thou.'^di the leafage dried up, even those stems that had 

 shed seed' remained green, and it was like self-cured standing hay. 

 It would therefore be an invaluable grass to have over the pas- 

 tures, but the difficulty will be to establish it. The planting I 

 refer to was plowed and prepared land kept clear of stock. Ps 

 growth there was not rapid, and it did not seed heavily. I have 

 not results from scattered seed, thpugh these may show up later. 



