Xii INTRODUCTION. 



birds of Central Australia will assure you that some of them greatly depend 

 upon the fruits of these plants for their sustenance, which in fact are in some 

 seasons the principal food supply. Moreover, the aboriginals, in the early 

 days, used to eat the fruits of several myoporinous plants. There is no 

 doubt that when cattle and sheep are taken from one district to another 

 where the natural herbage is somewhat dissimilar, it must have, for a time 

 at least, some effect upon their systems ; especially when they are taken 

 from rolling downs of grass to country where shrubs and herbs pre- 

 dominate. And this brings to mind a question which I think has not 

 received the attention of stock-owners that its importance justifies. It is 

 the mechanical action that hard-foliaged shrubs have upon the larynx of both 

 cattle and sheep which are not used to eating them. This irritation of the 

 larynx not only brings on laryngitis, but often tends to bring on inflammation 

 of the intestines. Farther, when hungry sheep have partaken too freely of 

 some leguminous plants, especially when in seed, they have died. But this 

 is caused during the process of digestion, when great quantities of gases are 

 made, which cause an abnormal distension of the stomach, thus preventing 

 the lungs working freely, and of course strangling the animals. On this 

 account many leguminous plants are called poisonous which are not really so. 

 Still these causes could not account for all the sheep that die somewhat 

 mysteriously. I use the word mysteriously advisedly, for many plants have 

 been sent to me as poisonous which, on examination, have proved to be quite 

 harmless. Nor is my case a singular one ; many others have had the same ex- 

 perience. "We have a far more insidious enemy to contend against in the 

 parasitic fungi which affect grasses, not only in the damp coastal districts, 

 but far into the interior. Some few years ngo, I drew attention to the 

 great increase of parasitic fungi on some of our most valuable grasses, and I 

 then said, what I think now, the fungoid growth on grasses is the primary 

 cause of many sheep dying so mysteriously. We have abundant proof of 

 the destructive agency of microscopic fungi on both animals and plants that 

 have not sufficient vigor to repel them. The life history of these native 

 fungoid growths is well worthy the attention of specialists, if only to show 

 what the effects are upon animals. 



As long as the greater portion of this continent is devoted to depasturing 

 sheep and cattle, and Australia intends to hold her own against the world in 

 the production of high-class wool, also in the matter of the frozen meat 

 export trade, it becomes of vital importance to the population that more 

 attention should be paid to our native fodder plants and grasses than has 

 hitherto been the case, to save some of them from extinction by a proper 

 system of conservation, and even cultivation. There is no gainsaying the 

 fact, that during recent droughts large tracts of country have been so over- 

 stocked, and, as a consequence, many valuable pasture plants and grasses 

 have become so scarce, that it would take years of careful conservation to 

 bring them back to anything like their original state. Being so closely fed 

 down, and often trampled down, their only natural means of reproducing 

 themselves by seed is partially destroyed, and every year makes matters worse. 

 An occasionally good season may, to a slight extent, remedy this, but 

 observant and thoughtful persons can see that in the near future more 

 vigorous action will have to be taken to keep our pastures up to their normal 

 state, or the number of sheep and cattle to each station will have to be con- 

 siderably lessened ; which of course means the export of less wool, tallow, 

 hides, beef and mutton. It should also be borne in mind that every fleece 

 of wool which is produced takes a percentage of potash and other fertile 

 substances out of the soil ; and nothing, so far, has been done to restore 

 these natural elements back to the earth. It must naturally follow that, if 



