74 PASTURE PLANTS AND PASTURES OF N.Z. 



it is often a wise plan to enclose a patch of land in a triangle 

 of wire netting, say two or three yards on the side, so that 

 the grasses that are growing best may be observed. Where 

 grasses are sown pure none of these difficulties is encountered. 

 Grasses that mature in their first year may be put in one 

 field and those that mature later on in another field ; winter 

 grasses in one field and summer grasses in another, and so on. 

 In fact the mixture of grasses is on the farm, and not in each 

 paddock. The total product of grass will be greater, and 

 the management of each field much easier. It is not meant to 

 suggest by this that one variety should be sown strictly by 

 itself, but that grasses of only one habit should be sown to- 

 gether. For instance Italian Rye and Red Clover might be 

 mixed, but to mix a little Foxtail with a large quantity of 

 Italian Rye would in many cases be to waste the Foxtail. 

 The plan here suggested is of course suitable only to those 

 farms that are divided into suitable paddocks. 



Whatever may be thought of the relative merits of 

 sowing seeds pure and in mixtures, it cannot be denied that 

 to sow the same mixtures in all classes of ground in any 

 district is unwise. And yet that is an exceedingly common 

 practice. Where land runs from light shingle to heavy 

 swamp in the same district one finds the same mixtures used 

 on both soils. And in surface sowing bush burns the same 

 mixture is often sown on the dry sunny faces and in the dark 

 damp gullies. Much study of the behaviour of the different 

 grasses under different conditions is still needed, and the 

 information we require cannot be obtained until careful 

 experiments are made on the lines suggested earlier in this 

 Chapter. In the meantime it is well to note that the grass 

 that does best on any land is the best grass for that land. 

 This may seem a truism, but it is one whose teaching is often 

 neglected. If the headlands and roadsides run to Cocksfoot 

 or Rye Grass, or Danthonia or Timothy, then that is the grass 

 that will succeed best if sown down for permanent pasture. 



