WANT IN PALATABILITY OF NEW ZEALAND GRASSES. 93 
to be renewed again and again, no means of any kind worth 
mentioning have been used to improve this natural pasture, out 
of which so many thousands of tons of wool have been made. 
Certainly the number of sheep grazed per acre is very small, 
perhaps one to four acres being quite a liberal estimate. In 
the Mackenzie country more than thirty years continuous grazing 
has not lessened the carrying-capacity of the whole area—in fact, 
if the number of rabbits also grazing on the land be considered, its 
carrying-capacity has increased. And yet over a good deal of that 
pasture-land the tussock has been wiped out. 
Evidently the tussocks Poa caespitosa and Festuca novae-zealandiae 
are not relished by sheep. ‘This was discovered in the early days 
of sheep-farms, and recourse was had to burning the tussock in order 
to make it put forth young palatable leaves, which, though they are 
produced in the ordinary course of things, are so surrounded by the 
old, dry, unpalatable leaves that the sheep cannot reach them. At 
the present time the consensus of opimion amongst sheep-farmers 
appears to be that the tussock should be burnt at the end of winter, 
or as soon after as possible, since late burning is apt to cause the 
death of the tussocks. Obviously, too, the aspect of the slope with 
regard to the sun must be taken into consideration, the late burn- 
ing of sunny faces being much more harmful than that of shady 
‘faces. Much burning in the past has been harmful, for in no few 
places slopes of stony debris have arisen through this cause. 
Another grass—this of great reputed palatability—is the small 
blue-tussock (various varieties of Poa Colensozi). This in many 
places is extremely abundant, and obviously on the increase. 
Probably its palatability is greatly overestimated. This is the 
more likely since various quite poor introduced grasses growing 
side by side with it—eg., Yorkshire fog and sweet-vernal—in 
winter are eaten to the ground. Nor are even sorrel (Rumex 
Acetosella) and catsear (Hypochaeris radicata) neglected by the sheep. 
The above indigenous grasses do not stand alone as lacking 
palatability. It seems probable that, with the doubtful exception 
of the blue-grass (Agropyron scabrum), and at lower levels danthonia 
(varieties of Danthonia pilosa), the other pasture grasses are more 
or less worthless in this regard. Where a really high-class fodder- 
plant has been present it is now gone. According to the early 
historians of sheep-farming, the anise (Angelica montana) was 
