CULTIVATION OF NATIVE GRASSES. 



Attention lias often been drawn in this Colony to the desirability of 

 encouraging the growth of our native grasses, but the recommendations have 

 frequently been in advance of the time. In this connection the words of 

 P. Cunningham, written over seventy years ago, will be read with interest : — 



" We want much to have a course of experimental trials with our native 

 grasses, in order to ascertain how far they are capable of improvement from 

 cultivation, and of being associated with the most suitable of the English 

 grasses in ameliorating our swards. It is in this point of view that Govern- 

 ment farms are calculated to be of use ; and certainly the Government of a 

 young country like ours could not devote a thousand or two yearly to a 

 better purpose than experimentalising upon systems and substances likely 

 to be conducive to the awakening of its slumbering energies and the pro- 

 gressive advancement of its wealth." — Two Years in New South Wales ; by 

 P. Cunningham, B.K 2nd edition, vol. i, p. 197 (1827) . 



Now that we have a Department of Agriculture the work is being taken 

 up in earnest. Our grasses are experimented with more or less at all the 

 experimental farms. Under my own immediate supervision I have a number 

 of Australian and American grasses under cultivation, in good soil near the 

 coast, viz., in the Botanic Gardens ; in poor, sandy soil in the Centennial 

 Park ; and in clay soil at the State Nursery at Campbelltown. The past year 

 has been the most discouraging year for many years to planters, because of 

 the drought, and of what I may term the " awkward" periods at which the 

 small amount of rain we had fell ; but such bad seasons teach some lessons 

 which good seasons fail to do. 



Most of the reports on our native grasses refer to them strictly in the wild 

 state, but cultivation frequently changes the nature of grasses in the 

 direction of making them tender. In other words, our knowledge of native 

 species is not as favourable to many of them as we may reasonably expect 

 it to be on further acquaintance. 



There is another matter for consideration. Much depends upon the soil 

 and situation in which a grass has been grown. Mr. T. B. Kidston, a man 

 of wide experience of the western country, puts the case in this way : — 



" With regard to the nutritive qualities of grasses, I hold that they 

 depend mainly on the soil on which they grow. If the ' blue,' ' umbrella/ 

 or i kangaroo ' grasses are found on the rich plains, where the salsolaceous 

 plants abound, they are very fattening ; but the same grasses growing in 

 a stringy-bark gully or on a ridge are very deficient in fattening properties. 

 In the first case the stock are always in high condition, in the second, 

 however green and abundant the grass, the stock never thrive." 



This should be borne in mind, not only in assessing the normal value of 

 any particular grass, but also in our experiments with the view to their 

 improvement. Because certain grasses have shown their adaptability to the 

 conditions of certain soils and situations, it does not follow that they would 

 not produce more valuable results elsewhere. This is the very basis of all 

 acclimatisation work. If plants are all at the present time in their best and 



