upon. All the railway enclosures throughout the continent are 

 excellent reserves for the preservation of the indigenous grasses 

 and other herbage, and the most superficial observer cannot fail to 

 have seen the amount of seed that is matured and distributed on 

 the adjacent land by winds and other agencies. When this seed 

 germinates it cannot fail to enhance the grazing capabilities of the 

 pastures for miles around. 



The small paddock system is the best to adopt for grazing large 

 areas in country that is suitable for pasturing sheep, and where the 

 herbage is plentiful. For those areas that have deteriorated so 

 much that animals have a difficulty to eke out an existence on them, 

 it would be a \vise thing to rest them for a period, until the better 

 kinds of herbage recuperate. It may not be generally known, but 

 it is an almost invariable fact, that where horses are constantly 

 allowed to graze in pastures where the undesirable " spear " and 

 " three-awned spear " grasses grow, these plants are not nearly so 

 plentiful as they are on those areas from which these animals are 

 excluded ; sheep, on the contrary, that are allowed to roam over 

 large areas, eat out the very best grasses and other herbage, and it is 

 not until they become pressed with hunger that they will eat the 

 coarser vegetation. 



It would depend upon the size of the pastoral holding and 

 the number of sheep that is grazed upon it, as to the size of the pad- 

 docks to be adopted, but any larger than 2,000 acres are not to be 

 recommended, smaller areas being preferable. The paddocks 

 should be so arranged that each one should have at least from three 

 to four months' rest in a year. This would give the herbage an 

 opportunity to produce seed, which in time would germinate, and 

 new plants would spring up and cover the ground. Unless the 

 paddocks were in a very bad state before the system was adopted, 

 it is astonishing how quickly some of the herbage would recuperate, 

 drought time, of course, excepted. Another very great advantage 

 to be taken into consideration by adopting the close paddocking 

 system, is that sheep could be kept, if not near ^hearing time, a little 

 longer than usual in any paddock which might have a number of 

 noxious plants growing in it, during which time they would 

 trample most of them down. This would give a better 

 chance for the superior grasses and other herbage to grow 

 when that particular paddock was resting. By adopting the close- 

 paddocking system, it would also be found that tine crops of grass 

 could be cut in some of tin- paddocks in propitious seasons, which 

 could be made either into hay or ensilage to provide iced for stock 

 during drought time. With the appliances in the shape of labor- 

 saving machinery that are now obtainable at a moderate cost, 

 thousands of tons of fodder could be saved in times of plenty. 

 Whether the grass or other herbage is turned into hay or ensilage 

 it would be advisable to make the stores of fodder some distance 

 apart, so that when it became necessary to artificially feed stock 



