ACCLIMATISED GRASSES. 83 



SOME ACCLIMATISED AND CULTIVATED EXOTIC 

 GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS. 



GRASSES. 



In the coast and more settled districts where there is 

 a good average rainfall the following exotic grasses have been 

 cultivated for many years with more or less success, and some 

 of the hardier ones have become acclimatised in the native 

 pastures and provide useful auxiliary feed when the weather 

 conditions are favourable for their growth. 



Bancroft Grass (Panicum muticum) is a rapid-growing 

 plant of straggling habit thriving only in the warmer coast 

 districts where it yields a bulk of succulent, rich herbage 

 much liked by dairy cattle which do well on it. This vigorous- 

 growing grass should not be cultivated with other pasture 

 grasses, but rather as an auxiliary crop. This species is 

 sometimes called "Para Grass." 



Different kinds of Canary Grass have long been 

 acclimatised in Australia, and they have a certain 

 economic value in the pastures in early summer. But 

 Phalaris bulbosa, the more recently introduced Canary 

 Grass, is the most important, from a stockowner's point of 

 view. Since I recommended its cultivation in New England 

 and in the colder districts generally, it has come greatly into 

 favour as winter feed for stock. It is a strong, rapid-growing 

 grass attaining a height of seven or eight feet when allowed 

 to grow undisturbed for a time, and produces a great bulk of 

 palatable, leafy herbage on which herbivora of all kinds do 

 well and fatten readily. Unless this grass is cultivated for 

 hay or ensilage it should be kept in a comparatively dwarf 



