PASPALUM DILATATUM.

Marlborough Express, Volume XL, Issue 4, 5 January 1907, Page 1

PASPALUM DILATATUM.

The Agricultural Gazette, N.S.W., says of paspalum in Northern New South Wales: " This remarkable plant is rapidly coming to the forefront as a grass peculiarly adapted to our uncertain climate. Being a deep-rooter, its properties as a drought-resister alone proclaim it invaluable, and while throughout the warmer seasons of the year it surpasses all other grasses in the rapidity and abundance of its growth, the severest of our frosts, although retarding its growth, fail to subdue its evergreen state. It is most efficacious in subduing and preventing the growth of all noxious weeds. By the assistance of Paspalum dilatatum many lands hitherto deemed worthless on account of their rocky, hilly, or swampy situations have been triumphantly reclaimed. Throughout the | length and breadth of the northern dairy districts paspalum grass is regarded as the king of pasture grasses, and at present it has no doubt every claim to such a position. Mr Brandon, manager of the well-known Byron Bay. Butter factory, N.S.W., says of paspalum grass:—"l do not know what this district would have done without it, especially during the very dry weather we experienced some time back. With regard to the quality of the butter manufactured from it, it is all that could be desired. This factory, which was established about 10 years ago, and is owned and controlled by our farmers, for the month of January last paid away to suppliers for cream and pork the immense sum of £44,500, or at the rate of half a million per annum. Nearly all the cows from which the milk is obtained for this factory are grazed on paspalum, and) very few of them are either hand-fed or housed during winter months.