1918.] The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 
73 
of the recognized methods of pasture-treatment of the present day. No 
small advance, indeed, has been made in the treatment of New Zealand 
pastures during quite recent years, largely through the researches of the 
Agricultural Department ; but the knowledge is still far too inadequate in 
many instances for an approach towards perfection. 
Take the case of the tussock grasslands, the most extensive of New 
Zealand pastures. At the present time even the actual tussocks are not 
properly classified. Here the very starting-point for the ecologist has not 
been reached. Of course, there are names of a sort, but in no few instances 
the accepted botanical name — and there is no other as yet — is almost 
worthless for economic purposes, since it does not refer to one true-breeding 
race with its peculiar qualities, but to a mixture of such races, which must 
behave in this way or that according as one or other unnamed race is 
dominant. To assert that Poa Colensoi on a certain sheep-run is not eaten 
by the sheep tells us nothing until we know what particular race in that 
mixture of races designated P. Colensoi is meant. 
Again, if the true names of the grasses are problematical, still less is 
known regarding their actual ecological requirements— i.e., the climate, 
soil, &c., that suits them best. Even the life-histories of the two principal 
tussock-grasses, Festuca novae-zealandiae and Poa caespitosa, are unknown. 
So, too, our ignorance is profound regarding the liking by stock for nearly 
all our indigenous grasses. For instance, Poa Colensoi, cited above, pos¬ 
sesses considerable reputation as a fodder plant, but really it is doubtful 
if certain of its constituent races are eaten by sheep to any extent, not¬ 
withstanding Buchanan’s dictum.* 
Next comes the actual composition of the tussock grassland not only 
in different parts of New Zealand, but in contiguous areas ; the effect of 
burning, of spelling, of understocking and overstocking ; the relation of 
the plant-covering to aspect, slope, snowfall, high winds, and so on. All 
these are matters sufficiently easy to investigate, and they must be actually 
known before real economic progress can be made. 
The control of weeds is a question arising daily in New Zealand agri¬ 
culture. Here, in the first place, comes the intensive study of the species 
doing the damage, both from the autecological and the synecological aspect. 
The better known are its habits, its likes and dislikes, its relation to soil 
and climate, its special plant and animal enemies, its methods of dis¬ 
semination, its seasonal changes, its power of variability, and last but not 
least its actual distribution, the easier will it be to set up satisfactory 
methods for its downfall. Only when such ecological information as the 
above is available regarding all the so-called “ noxious weeds ” will they 
cease to be noxious, through their proper control, where such is desirable. 
This last condition may seem foolish to many, but really only ecology 
can decide whether a “ noxious weed ” in certain uncultivated areas is 
“noxious” at all. Acts of Parliament will not eradicate any weed, but 
only the act of the farmer based upon that exact knowledge which ecology 
alone can supply. 
Many more examples could easily be given to show the intimate relation 
of this new-born science, ecology, to agriculture. The above should be 
* “ The grass under notice [ Poa Colensoi ] is everywhere closely cropped by all 
kinds of stock, and even in the absence of any analysis may be accepted as a grass of 
first-class character ” (J. Buchanan, Manual of the New Zealand Grasses, 1880). A. H. 
Cockayne {Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 48, 1916, p. 157) writes, “ For my part, I think the 
feeding-value of the blue tussock [ Poa Colensoi ] has been exaggerated. Even on land 
recently grazed very little sign of actual feeding-down can be seen, but certainly sheep 
do much better on land where there is an abundance of this grass than where it 
is scarce.” 
