INTRODUCTORY. 11 



refuse from dairy stock, and the results have already justified 

 the labour. This innovation is a decided advance in the 

 improvement of pastures, and might be more generally 

 practised with advantage on all the grazing areas in the 

 Commonwealth devoted to dairy cattle. 



Pasture Herbs that Provide Good Feed for Stock. In 



Australia there are large numbers of herbs, other than grasses, 

 that form a good precentage of the indigenous herbage on 

 many sheep and cattle stations. Owing to their varied char- 

 acter for there are representatives of many different families 

 of plants these nutritious fodder herbs are a most important 

 factor in making Australian native pastures rich feeding 

 grounds for all kinds of herbivora. Moreover, the succulent 

 stems and leaves of many of these plants assuage the thirst 

 of the animals that eat them. Many of these herbs have long, 

 strong roots, which penetrate deeply into the earth, and 

 enable the plants to withstand a long period of dry weather, 

 without any appreciable check to their growth. When not 

 too closely fed over, they produce an abundance of seed which 

 germinates readily under ordinary conditions, and so they 

 are fairly plentiful in many parts of the country. Most of 

 them are herbaceous plants, and many of upright habit, 

 growing about one foot high, while several have prostrate 

 stems, which lengthen considerably in good seasons. 



The Importance of Salt-Bush to the Pastoral Industry. 

 When sheep and cattle were first removed from the coast 

 areas, and pastured on the great inland plains, observant 

 stockmen were not long in finding out that the animals kept 

 in excellent condition, and that where salt-bush formed a good 

 percentage of the herbage, sheep that had been suffering from 

 distoma diseases, fluke, for example, were eventually cured 

 of these intestinal parasites. Although during the early days 



