24 AUSTRALIAN GRASSES AND PASTURE PLANTS 



pasture grass, worth bringing under systematic cultivation, 

 for it does well on various classes of good soil, but on rich land 

 it yields an enormous amount of herbage suitable for turning 

 into hay or ensilage. In autumn its flowering stems become 

 hard and cane like, and the leaves rather harsh, and stock 

 seldom or never touch it in that condition. When allowed to 

 grow undisturbed in late summer it freely produces seed which 

 cockatoos like and eat in great quantities. From this cir- 

 cumstance the popular name is applied to it. The seeds 

 usually ripen in late summer and autumn. 



Cockshin or Barn Yard Grass (Panicum crus-galli] is of 

 annual duration growing from two to eight feet high, and 

 found generally in the coast districts but occasionally further 

 inland. On rich, moist soils this vigorous-growing grass 

 yields, during the hotter months, an enormous amount of 

 rich, succulent, broad, leafy herbage much relished by cattle, 

 and especially valuable for milch cows. It has been cultivated 

 in a small way as feed for dairy stock, but is well worth more 

 extensively cultivating on fertile, moist land in the coast areas, 

 and I can recommend it for systematic cropping inland where 

 irrigation is possible. If grown under these conditions it 

 would supply an enormous amount of valuable fresh feed for 

 stock, or the crop could be used for ensilage. There would 

 be no difficulty in bringing this grass under systematic cultiva- 

 tion, for under ordinary conditions it produces a great amount 

 of seed in summer and autumn. This grass is common in 

 nearly all the hot and temperate parts of the earth. In 

 America, where it is highly prized, one writer says that "it 

 gives five tons of hay per acre without care or cultivation, 

 and that on the Mississippi hundreds of acres are mowed on 

 single farms. ' ' A closely allied native annual grass (Panicum 

 colonum) has similar economic properties and can be recom- 

 mended as auxiliary feed for stock. 



