FERN-CRUSHING 177 



down during summer thunder-showers in short-lived rivulets of grit and 

 sand, or glued by wet to pebbles displaced by stock. Both species, 

 moreover, when close cropped, possess the remarkable habit of sending 

 forth culms perfectly flat to the earth. The caul of grass originally 

 confined to the tops spreads each season like a mantle lower down the 

 slopes. 



The second winter after the fire the paddock was carrying 2500 

 sheep. It was not until the third season that manuka, reintroduced on 

 the feet and wool of sheep, again began to show itself. By this time, 

 however, all danger had permanently passed away. Time only now 

 was requisite for the establishment of a turf, over which fires 

 could be run every two or three years, fires that would scorch the 

 low bracken fronds and short manuka. The Rocky Staircase had been 

 grassed. 



Of the several points to be noted in the annals of our paddock, one 

 is the failure of some and the success of other aliens. Three times 

 other seed was in early times practically unprocurable ryegrass, cock's- 

 foot and white clover have been surface-sown : the first time with a 

 certain temporary success ; the second with less benefit to the paddock ; 

 the third with no satisfactory results whatsoever. In spite of three 

 sowings, therefore, after thirty-five years' work, only the highly-manured 

 sheep-camps grow a turf of English grass. On the other hand, chance 

 comers such as suckling (Trifolium dubiuni), and in a less degree 

 clustered clover (Trifolium glomeratum), and now, last of all, Trifolium 

 arvense, in books dealing with fodder - plants passed over or classed 

 as worthless, have each and all done yeoman service on the Rocky 

 Staircase. All these plants have a certain future on this type of land. 

 On the whole, however, the aliens so far have failed, the natives 

 succeeded. To the latter, bar ploughing and manuring with fertil- 

 isers, a great proportion of the trough of the run will always 

 belong. Each time a plant has overrun central Tutira it has been 

 a native. Thus bracken has in my time reigned on the Rocky 

 Staircase for twenty -five years, manuka twelve, danthonia two. 

 Tutira plants have competed for Tutira soil ; two species, Pteris aquilina 

 and Coriaria ruscifolia, did hold the station ; others, Danthonia semi- 

 annularis, D. pilosa, and Microloena stipoides, do hold it. 



A second point worth noting in this progress towards pastoral 



M 



