PRACTICAL PAPERS—BUTTER FACTORIES. 
255 
urage is abundant in January, February, March, April, and 
up to about the first of June and July. Then comes the dry 
season, during which no rain falls until the latter part of Oc¬ 
tober or first of November, and sometimes it holds off until 
December. 
Most of the native grasses are annuals. The wild oat grass 
and bunch grass are regarded of most value. The Gramma, 
or bunch grass is exceedingly nutritious. Stock thrive upon 
it at all seasons, except, perhaps, at the beginning of the rainy 
season, when, for a few weeks, its nutritiousness is impaired 
from the causes which have been previously explained. 
In July and August, it as well as all others, becomes dry 
and brown, and the fields present hardly a vestage of green. 
Indeed, the fields are so devoid of any green or growing plant, 
and the tufts of grass are so brown and dried up that the east¬ 
ern stock-grower can scarcely rid himself of the impression 
that the whole country is of little, if any, value for grazing, 
and would supply only a meager sustenance for a few goats ; 
and yet immense herds are seen cropping this withered, dead, 
or perfectly dry, crisp herbage, and the animals look sleek and 
fat, and fit for the shambles. Nothing astonished me more 
than this seemingly incongruous state of things; for to an 
eastern farmer, fat cattle at pasture are always associated with 
luxurious vegetation and an abundance of succulent food. It 
is true, along the borders of streams, in the narrow valleys or 
deep gorges, a fringe of green breaks the monotony of the 
dead and apparently worthless vegetation, covering the hills, 
and stretching away to the distance on the plains ; but these 
are scarcely sufficient to account for the uniformly fine condi¬ 
tion of stock. 
It becomes evident, therefore, that from the peculiarity of 
the climate, and perhaps from the nature of the plants them¬ 
selves, their nutritive elements are retained; and that the 
standing grass in the field is cured as perfectly for food in a 
natural way as farmers at the east do it by artificial means. 
And this is more readily explained from the entire absence of 
