210 A. G. HAMILTON. 
seed, and this lying on the ground was licked up by the stock 
when the herbage failed and so they kept up their condition till 
the rains came and brought succulent green feed again. This I 
was able to confirm by personal observation subsequently. The 
same thing occurs also with native plants. What chance have 
plants to succeed when they are eaten off root and branch and 
the very seeds licked up off the ground ? 
The most valuable of the native forage plants in the West are 
the saltbushes of various species. But through overstocking and — 
droughts many of the best species, especially the ‘‘Old man salt- 
bush ” (Rhagodia parabolica) are rapidly failing under the severe 
conditions to which they are subjected. Dr. Ross in a paper on 
the “ Effect of Climate etc., on Wool,”* states his opinion that 
the best native grasses and forage plants die down as they are 
eaten back again and again and so are destroyed while worthless 
weeds are left. This is particularly the case when a wet winter 
and spring are succeeded by a dry summer, for in a wet time more 
of the seeds shed the previous autumn will germinate, and less will 
be left dormant in the ground. 
Many forest trees too, have been cut down for the purpose of 
_ feeding stock with the leaves in drought. To suchan extent was 
this done during droughts, that the cattle would gather at the 
sound of the axe. There is now however, legislation which forbids 
the destruction of trees useful for fodder—they may be lopped 
and the branches fed to the stock, but the trunk must be left. 
This particularly applies to the Sandal-wood of the Murray River 
and the Currajong (Brachychiton populnewm) the mucilaginous 
leaves of which are much relished by cattle. It seems a marvellous 
thing that people should have to be protected from themselves by 
Act of Parliament, but so it is. 
There is a very obvious remedy for this state of things, 7.e., to 
avoid overstocking, but it is one that is not always taken, owners 
often preferring to risk a bad season coming. There is another 
* Journ. Roy. Soc. of N.S. Wales, Vol. xv1., p. 237. 
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