The Grazing of a Paddock. Ill 



inucli more than a cursory observation will show, or the 

 temporary profit on the feeding stock recompense for. 

 Nothing in nature man, animal, plant cares for naked 

 exposure to the cold. They all seek shelter, and flowers, 

 buds, leaves, contract or close-up in cold and expand 

 and grow in warm weather. The grasses of the open 

 field, in communistic fashion, provide shelter one to the 

 other, and the leaves of each shelter its central or seed 

 growth. When the field is stripped bare and close in 

 cold, or indeed in hot weather for shelter is required 

 from heat as well as from cold it is obviously against 

 the interest of the grasses, and their bulk of season's 

 growth is much delayed and reduced. And every time 

 it is done it causes the decay of some plants. 



The light stocking of a paddock of English grasses 

 to enable continuous running of stock on it, has an 

 additional objection to those mentioned. The animals 

 seek out the better grasses and feed them so attentively 

 that, come dry or wet weather, they knock about and 

 uproot many plants. A favourite grass may be, natur- 

 ally or in a particular soil, a shallow rooter. The in- 

 ferior grasses escape this over-attention. They would 

 under heavy short stocking be included in the meal, and 

 be eaten fresh and sweet, and not tackled after more or 

 less vitiation as in an understocked paddock. The pick- 

 ing and choosing of the better grasses means that the 

 absolutely inferior ones are left alone to shelter them- 

 selves and to seed, and are ready always to jump the 

 claim of the better grasses that may be slowly but 

 surely destroyed. 



Every farmer may have a defined rule with respect 

 to the size of his paddocks, in accordance with the nature 

 of his farming operations, extent of his property, and 

 quality of the land. If he is sheep farming on an exten- 

 sive scale he cannot have a network of small paddocks, 

 nor need he, for here invariably the land is not first- 

 class, and may not warrant heavy fencing. Neverthe- 



