THE AORIOULTUBAL JOURNAL. 



531 



Paspaium DHaiaiuntm 



A GLOWING REPORT. 



R. A. CRAWFORD, of the Western 

 Australia Agricultural Departmeat, 

 writes in glowing terms of the above 

 grass. His remarks upon the adaptability 

 of the grass to the most different kinds of 

 soil, to flood or to drought, to frost or 

 severe heat, will prove of interest. In the 

 departmental Journal he says : — 



On all sides thnre seems to be a general 

 desire on the part of the farmers of this 

 State to try and improve their grass lands, 

 and some of the seed merchants tell me 

 they have sold more grass seed this year 

 than they have in the past two or three 

 years. Among the grasses that there has 

 been the greatest demand for is the Pas- 

 paium Dilatatum, some farmers having 

 ordered several hundredweight of it. It 

 is to be regretted that there seems to be 

 so much trouble in getting this seed to 

 grow. One farmer not long since informed 

 me that he planted 20 lbs. of it, and that 

 he did not have more than a dozen plants 

 of it come up. It is very delicate after it 

 first germinates, and is easily killed off, 

 aither by frost or wet, for the first 

 week or two ; after that it is one of the 

 hardiest of our grass plants. It will stand 

 heat or cold, wet or dry. Last spring I 

 saw some of it that had been under water 

 about 2 feet deep for over three months, 

 and the water at the time I saw it was 

 quite a foot deep on it. It was then most 

 vigorous, and had sent up shoots above 

 the water. It will stand severe frost. I 

 have it growing in my garden, and morn- 

 ing after morning during the past winter 

 the frost has been thick upon it, and it is 

 fresh and green and growing slowly. It 

 makes but little growth in the winter 

 months, but once the days begin to 

 lengthen and the sun's rays stronger, it 

 grows rapidly, and the best point is that 

 it keeps growing all the summer through. 

 It seems to be more suited for loose loamy 

 or sandy soils, where it can send its roots 

 down to a great distance. Last year I was 

 taking up some plants that "had been 

 grown from seed the previous year, and 

 some of the roots measured 22 inches in 

 length, and had broken off at that. If the 

 the whole root had been got out it would 

 have been at lenst 30 inches in depth. 

 This was in a pure white sand. Last 

 spring I planted out a number of roots in 



some of the stiffest clay I could find. 

 The clay is so stiff that in the summer it 

 bakes just like a brick, and can only be 

 broken up by a pick, and even then it 

 will only break up in pieces like a coarse 

 gravel. The plants were all sets taken 

 from one large root. Seventy-five sets 

 were obtained from the one root, and all 

 grew but one. There was no attention 

 given to the plants during the summer, 

 either by cultivation or watering. Some 

 were in a fowl pen, and others were in the 

 garden. Those in the fowl pen were kept 

 eaten down by the fowls, but there was 

 always a green growth the whole summer 

 through. The ones that were in the 

 garden grew to about 3 feet high, and 

 were cut down twice after they had seeded 

 each time. At the end of the summer 

 they were green and vigorous, although 

 the ground around was as hard as a metal 

 road. 



During this past winter I lifted up one 

 or two of the plants, and found that the 

 roots had gone down about 12 inches in 

 the clay, and the roots were remarkably 

 abundant, being about twice as large as 

 the plant itself. From the result of the 

 experiments that I have made during the 

 past four years, I am quite convinced that, 

 so far as that part of the country lying 

 between the Darling range and the sea 

 coast from Geraldton to Albany is con- 

 cerned, the Paspaium Dilatatum will 

 thrive and flourish in it. 



The country that is now looked upon 

 as utterly useless except to grow banksias 

 on for firewood, I am satisfied, can now 

 be turned into good pasture land that will 

 carry great herds of cattle, sheep, or 

 horses. Anyone who wishes to get a 

 good start with it cannot do better than 

 get roots and subdivide them into sets, 

 planting them from 18 inches to 3 feet 

 apart. If planted like this and allowed to 

 seed it will soon fill up the gaps and cover 

 the whole ground. The roots are not ob- 

 tainable in this State in any numbers, but 

 can easily be obtained in New South 

 Wales at a very moderate price per thou- 

 sand. They carry over here fairly well, 

 several consignments having been im- 

 ported this season, and already they are 

 shooting out. 



