INTRODUCTORY 15 



winds of winter. Moreover, this arboreal vegetation when 

 fairly plentiful mitigates the scorching effects of the hot winds 

 on the more tender herbage, preserves the surface moisture 

 from too rapidly evaporating, and in a great measure prevents 

 wind storms from disturbing or removing the loose surface 

 soil ; thus playing a most important part in the economy of 

 Nature. Trees that provide good feed for stock during adverse 

 seasons should be looked upon as a valuable pastoral, indeed 

 a national asset. Droughts will recur at certain intervals, 

 and some of them in the natural order of events will be more 

 intense than others ; then pastoralists who have on their 

 properties large numbers of good fodder trees and edible 

 shrubs, that endure long periods of dry weather with impunity, 

 will be enabled to keep their stock from starving until the 

 return of more propitious seasons, when the nutritious grasses 

 and succulent herbage again become plentiful. If a good 

 fodder tree or shrub is cut down new growth rarely springs 

 from the stump, consequently it is lost for ever; whereas, if 

 it were judiciously lopped it would remain a pastoral asset 

 and supply stock feed for future requirements. 



Storing Fodder for Feeding Stock in Adverse Seasons. 

 In propitious seasons millions of acres in the interior are 

 covered with grass and other herbage often to a depth of 

 three feet or more. At such time stock have much more feed 

 than they can consume, and immense quantities of rich her- 

 bage are often trampled down by the animals' hoofs, and when 

 dry it becomes pulverised and rendered useless. Several 

 enterprising stock-owners have cut quantities of the growth 

 when superabundant in their pastures and turned it into hay 

 or ensilage at comparatively small cost, and this has proved 

 a valuable stand-by for stock in adverse seasons. This method 

 of conserving the surplus herbage might with advantage be 

 more generally adopted, for every ton of fodder preserved is 

 not only a local but a national asset. 



