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1¥en,, 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAD. 73 
Agriculture, 
THE MANAGEMENT OF PASTURE LANDS. 
By S. C. VOLLER, 
Department of Agriculture. 
Ip there is one thing certain above others in connection with our grazing 
‘nterests in this colony, it is thatwe donot get, as a rule, anything like full 
vantage from our pastures. 
allow at once that there are some pleasing exceptions to be met with 
re and there, but they only prove the rule. How many dairy farms, how 
any grazing areas, out of the many thousands of acres which are deyoted to 
Such purposes, are really giving the results in grass which they ought to do? 
“OW many paddocks will a man meet in a day’s ride through our closely settled 
‘strict, which can be said to be a delight to the eye of the onlooker, as well as 
‘delight to the stock running there? Is it not true that one has only to keep 
'S eyes open while going on a railway trip, to see a striking contrast between 
i" © stowth of grass inside the railway tences and that outside; and the poor 
_Hortunate stock in many places pegging away at the almost bare ground for 
* teed, and giving now and then wistful looks at the tempting stuff they cannot 
ah at? I fancy I hear some of my readers exclaim: “Oh, yes; but that’s 
ae because the railway line is shut up, and the cattle kept out. Anybody 
ie See that!’ ‘Well, my friends, I am glad if you can see that, because if you 
a 1, you can go on and see a little more. I am afraid there are a good many 
“0 do not see it, or, at least, never think what it points to, Ts there not a 
ae object lesson in the fine growth of grass inside our railway enclosures? Ix 
ah nothing to learn in the wretched fact that in the majority of 
i docks, there is no grass worth talking about, and that in a great 
it districts, both quality and quantity are rapidly getting less, until 
aK ae become a common thing for folks to talk about “the good 
as th ys” when the grass was grass, and cows used to milk, and bullocks fatten 
fie Ve, no longer do now? Is there nothing in the fact that the quality of the 
fie has completely altered in many parts of the country and altered for the 
ah a and is still altering for the worse? Inferior sorts of grass are the only 
Wh, how to be found on much country that used to carry high-class varieties. 
nee is this? Simply because the majority of our farmers and graziers have 
i cr taken care of their country, but have, instead, gone the right way 
jones to spoil it, and are still working out their own destruction. | Over- 
at th Ig, promiscuous feeding, and the utter absence of system in grazing are 
eli, bottom of the trouble. For years stock have been kept rambling and 
stock § over the same land, sometimes in too great numbers and naturally, when 
and rect they pick the best and the tastiest grass and leave the less palatable, 
hey HEM sole on always doing this. What is the result? The best varieties 
Worst get a chance to go to seed or even to keep up a decent growth, while the 
aie and the most useless are the ones that are left to seed, becoming as a 
point rence the principal occupants of the soil. A moment’s thought on this 
ait Will make the matter quite clear, and bring up in the mind of the reader 
differce of the importance of the thing, for it is important. 1+ makes a vast 
capactin’s to decent country to allow it to deteriorate inthis way. The carrying 
the al is seriously lowered, fattening becomes almost an impossibility, while 
Vanis ene power, where dairying is followed, gets down almost to 
point, : 
here 
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