SOUTH ISLAND GRASSLANDS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 87, 9 October 1935, Page 4

SOUTH ISLAND GRASSLANDS

:-'A recent bulletin issued by the Department of Scientific and Industrial! Research"comprises' a very' thorough and valuable -ecological survey of the grasslands"; of .-the . South Island, the work of DivF. W. Hilgendorf. A description, is given .of the South Island from an agricultural and pastoral point of view, using'the plant covering as a basis of classification, the plant being the visible expression of all ■ the factors such as soil, rainfall,- sunshine, i etc., in, its- environment.' Such a suf- | vey, it is pointed out, tells the farmer what he really wants to know and in terms which he can understand. The very large map.which accompanies the bulletin has been in course of construction for six or eight years. It shows the type of vegetation to be found in every, part of the island, but, as is pointed out, such a map cannot be final because of the rapid changes in vegetation that are taking place owing to interference by man. It is interesting to note that over .13,000,000 (or 35 per cent.) of the South Island's 37,500,000 acres consist of bush or barren unoccupied land. The occupied but unimproved land totals nearly 18,000,000 acres, or 48 per cent, of the total area. The improved land totals about 6.500,000 acres, or 17 per cent, of the total. Sown grasses occupy a little over five million acres,' crops and gardens a little over one million acres, plantations 103,000 acres, and orchards 13,000 acres. Of the 17,895,000 arres of occupied but unimproved land, nearly 13,000,000 acres are in tussock or other native grass. The 13 million acres of unoccupied land are almost equally divided between bush and barren country.