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owing largely to an insufficient and inadequately trained staff to undertake the work. A review of the re-grassing trials conducted in the back Taranaki country was recently made, and these trials have shown fairly conclusively that these sowings are on the correct lines but that they must be followed up with efficient stock control and application of labour to maintain ascendancy over the return of secondary growth. Perhaps no country illustrates better than the back Taranaki country the absolute need of a full appraisal and full appreciation of the essential fact that maintenance costs must bo met as these arise in the process of hill-country development. Unfortunately, too few settlers tackling hill country have the resources at their disposal to meet maintenance costs for, say, the first twenty years of development, and in consequence each year sees the country more and 'more overrun with noxious growth. Wherever those maintenance costs have been met and the country efficiently farmed the back I aranaki and similar hill country is shown to be a sound farming proposition. The tussock hill country is essentially an ecological study and must be faced from either of two angles—(l) establishment of species and strains of grasses and clovers that can persist under the present grazing management, including rabbit grazing, burning, &c., and (2) the control of grazing, burning, &c., so as to allow the tussock plants endemic to the country the ecological conditions necessary for their persistence. It is obvious at the moment that the tussock-growth form is incompatible with the type of grazing management practised, and its extinction must ultimately be its fate unless some control of the grazing factor is instituted. The work is of paramount importance, and one or more experienced research workers should be secured. Facial-eczema Investigation (see page 44). Fundamental Chemical Work in Relation to Grasslands. During the year the Plant Chemistry Laboratory has been established as a separate unit from the Grasslands Division. It is, however, housed in the same building and a close collaborative policy has been instituted. Dairy Pasture Research. This work is being conducted at Palmerston North in close collaboration with the Dairy Research Institute. The work commenced in 1934, more particularly in regard to feed-flavours' in cream. Since then its scope has been enlarged to cover some of the fundamentals in dairy feeds and feeding, and, in particular, reference to pasture species and strains —their ability to produce milk and their effect on the quality of the animal product—butter, cheese, milk, and cream, &c. Animal thrift on any one feed is also being studied. The following feeds are being tested : Pure perennial rye-grass, pure Italian rye-grass, perennial rye-grass, and white clover. During the past year areas of pure cocksfoot and cocksfoot and white clover have been established and fenced into J acre paddocks. These feeds will be included in the programme for the coming year. Sheep Pasture Research. This work is being conducted at Palmerston North conjointly with Massey Agricultural College on the sheep-farm of the College. During the summer and autumn the full programme has been implemented, some 50 acres being ploughed and sown to special pastures for the work. The trials fall into two main groups—(l) a test under field and controlled grazing conditions of pedigree seeds versus certified mother seeds, and (2) manurial trials in which (a) a high and low plane of fertility is maintained and (b) comparative trials under a high-fertility upkeep of super, basic slag, super and lime, and super, lime, and potash. Each treatment, whether strain or fertilizer, will be separately fenced and each replicated five times, the replicates being so disposed as to offset any change of soil conditions unduly favouring any one treatment. The individual fields, separately fenced, will ensure that any residual effects of stock droppings will be confined to their appropriate blocks and thus obviate any errors through transfer of fertility between one treatment and another. Both the dairy pasture research and the sheep pasture research is designed to give fundamental information on thrift in the animal itself, and this will have a particular and specific bearing on such problems as facial eczema, grass staggers, &c. Actually, maintenance of thrift in stock on highly improved lush pastures is one of the most pressing problems confronting grassland farming to-day, and such maladies as facial ezcema and grass staggers are a challenge to grassland workers and grassland farming itself, and unless the challenge is taken up may prove a permanent bar to any further progress in so far as increase in per-acre production is concerned. The pasture laid down in the sheep-pasture-research trials are all simple mixtures of perennial rye-grass and white clover, and these will be maintained on a high-fertility plane. Soil-erosion. Soil-erosion as an aspect of hill-country development was given some consideration during the year, the Director of the Division acting on a committee set up to report the present state of affairs in regard to erosion. In the process of ecological work in the field, and in the making of pasture surveys particularly, aspects of erosion have been studied in relation to grassland cover. Sward density is an important factor in erosion-control, and in this regard it is clear that pasture improvement plays an enormous part in inhibiting serious erosion. The matter is essentially linked up with the need to arrest pasture deterioration on hill country, and this question has been dealt with earlier in this report.

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