14 PASTURE PLANTS AND PASTURES OF N.Z. 



also highly nutritious. It grows low and dense, and is 

 useful for forming a close turf and filling up spaces 

 between other grasses. While it, of course, thrives best 

 on the heavier soils, it will hold its own indefinitely 

 on all soils but the very lightest, and is therefore 

 of great value in securing permanent pastures on 

 such land. The seed stalks are very wiry, and are unan- 

 imously rejected by stock. A very important result of this 

 is that Dogstail ripens its seed even while the paddock is 

 being depastured, unless, of course, the stocking is unusually 

 heavy. Thus the seed is scattered so that new plants occupy 

 all vacant spaces. If a field then is designed for a permanent 

 pasture only a little Dogstail need be sown at first, and it 

 will spread and occupy the spaces left by the shorter Kved 

 grasses as the latter die out. For instance a field sown in a 

 mixture containing only half a pound of Dogstail to the acre 

 was found in nine years to be clothed with that grass almost 

 entirely. A pound or so per acre of Dogstail should always be 

 mixed with Cocksfoot in mixtures for permanent pastures 

 for second class lands, as it tends to lessen the bad effect 

 of the tufty nature of that grass under the usual conditions 

 of sowing. Its close growth and turfy habit make it 

 a valuable constituent of lawn mixtures. It is useless for 

 temporary leys as it is somewhat slow in maturing, and as 

 mentioned before of only moderate growth. Growing 

 Dogstail for seed is a feature of the district near Palmerston 

 North. Colonial seed is better than English, which fre- 

 quently contains dog daisy as an impurity. The normal 

 price of the seed in recent seasons has been about Is. 4d. 

 per pound. 



Meadow Fescue {Festuca pratensis). — A grass of robust 

 growth, with coarse, stiff, and rather pale green leaves. 

 At the base of the sheath there is a distinct red coloura- 

 tion. The sheath is rounded, but the ears and ligule are 



