On the Tussac Grass. 
73 
as well as considerable personal inconvenience to the poor man, 
under the present circumstances of the colony. 
The portion of your Lordship's property described in the note 
appears to be well suited for the growth of this grass, if the blow- 
ing sand be not more than two feet deep near the beach, and fortu- 
nately rest on peat or peaty soil, no matter how thin. If the shore 
be bold, and the sea- bank high and rocky, I should choose the 
most exposed points. If the spray, but not the actual wave, 
dashes over it, so much the better. I do not think that sowing it 
in the shifting sand would answer in the first instance, though 
when the grass once takes root in any soil, the drift-sand blowing 
over it, amongst it, and almost burying it, does not seem to injure 
it. I would try some in the sand that has been fixed by the bent, 
but as near the sea as possible. The Tussac loves the spray, and 
the finest plants are almost growing in the water. If the breezes 
from the sea carry a great quantity of moisture to the peat-bog 
behind the tract of sand, I conceive the Tussac grass would answer 
extremely well in it. We have Tussac grass growing on peat- 
bogs on exposed islands in the Falklands, in places 800 and 1000 
feet above the sea ; but these sites are exposed to the westerly 
gales, which are laden with moisture. Some of the finest young 
plants I have seen grew from seed sown in rich mould in my gar- 
den, 300 yards from the shore of a deep inland harbour, and pro- 
tected from the winds by a high turf wall. This artificial mode 
seems to contradict what I before stated. Nature prefers the 
first-mentioned places ; but as the latter is a fact, I would recom- 
mend both to be tried. In the garden I was so successful with 
the plants from seed, that I proceeded to transplant suckers from 
the wild ones on the rocky shore to the rich mould in the garden, 
and I found them to thrive vigorously. I took suckers from these 
again, also from the plants raised by seed, and planted out more 
rows. Every plant answered admirably. I cut them down, and 
they grew more bushy and spread, throwing out fresh suckers. 
I should soon have filled a paddock with the plants ; but as it 
was necessary to change the site of the chief town, I had to aban- 
don my garden, and begin new and arduous labours, which have 
occupied the time of all hands too much to spare any for experi- 
mental agriculture. In laying out a piece of ground for Tussac 
grass, the following circumstances must be borne in mind : — the 
plant grows in bunches occupying from 2 to 3, and sometimes 
even 5 feet in diameter, and the blades of grass when full grown 
are 7 or 8 feet long. The roots seem forced up from the ground, 
and I have been in patches of fine full-grown Tussac in which a 
man on horseback is almost concealed. I should therefore sow 
the seed in rows 2 feet apart, some in a garden, and some on ex- 
posed points of peaty soil close to the sea, and within reach of the 
