36 IMPROVEMENT OF LAND BY STOCK. 



open soil was to become firm and hard ; whilst fresh growths 

 of herbs and grass, followed the footsteps of the invading 

 herds. The shaking bogs were soon to be solidified, and the 

 waters that permeated them, to retreat into well-defined chains 

 of ponds and lagoons." * 



Nevertheless, the naturalization of these great herds 

 of domestic creatures upon the virgin pasture lands of 

 the great continent of the south, proved by no means 

 the easy task that it might at first sight appear to be ; 

 for the herbage in many parts of the country was 

 exceedingly coarse and wiry, and proved but indiffer- 

 ently suited for grazing purposes ; and it was necessary 

 for the stock to become used to feeding on these new 

 kinds of pasture grasses, before they could be expected 

 to thrive upon them. Then, there was the constantly 

 recurring difficulty as to the water-supply ; and as the 

 water pools dried up, whole districts of country required 

 to be evacuated in haste. 



By degrees, however, these difficulties one by one 

 were surmounted, and upon what sometimes appeared 

 the very unpromising herbage and shrubs of the great 

 plains of the interior, stock was eventually found to fatten 

 admirably, and an improved class of herbage seemed to 

 spring up upon the feeding ranges of the great stock 

 farms, sometimes, no doubt, because the seeds of well- 

 known valuable fodder plants, were imported, and sown 

 broadcast over the country ; but to a great extent 'also 

 through natural causes; for pastures closely cropped 

 by large herds of cattle, etc., are known gradually to 

 become modified in character certain grasses and weeds 

 disappearing, whilst others seem to come up to take 



* The History of Australian Exploration, by Ernest Favenac,. 

 p. 56 (published Sydney, N.S.W., 1888). 



