THE GRASSLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXVII, Issue 3, 20 September 1923, Page 138

THE GRASSLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND.

SERIES II. THE TARANAKI BACK-COUNTRV

E. BRUCE LEVY,

Biological. Laboratory, Wellington.

i. FOREST SUCCESSIONS.

The hill country of New Zealand that has been cleared of forest or that still carries forest has been neglected-too much in the past from a grassland-research point of view. Millions of acres of forest have been felled and grassed more or less haphazardly. Those areas which could be stumped and ploughed are among the richest of our grassland areas, but of the unploughable forest lands, out of 11,000,000 acres felled and surface-sown with grass, . nearly 4,000,000 acres have reverted to scrub and fern, and this state of reversion is by no means stationary, 500,000 acres having been added to the total, according to official statistics, during the past four years. When it is - thus remembered that every year during the past four years some 125,000 acres of our hill country have gone back to secondary growth it will be realized that money spent on research work on that country is amply justified. Every acre of such country that reverts to secondary growth means an average expenditure of fully £2 per acre to clean up and resow, making for each year an expenditure by the hill-country farmers of, say, £250,000 if the deterioration is to be stayed.

The writer hopes to be able to prosecute research more and more closely on our hill country generally, and operations have already been begun in ■ the Whangamomona County. This work is being carried out in co-operation with Mr. J. W. Deem, chief Fields Division officer for the district, and with the assistance of Mr. A. ■ J. Glasson, Fields Instructor in Taranaki. As the work proceeds, the results ■ will be recorded from time to time in the Journal, and it is intended that the present article shall be the first of a series appertaining to the country in question.

The Taranaki back-country is decidedly hilly. Geologically speaking, the country is of recent origin, raised up as a great plain from the ocean depths. Upon the surface of this upraised plain nature has plied with its tools— frost, and running —and has sculptured out the present land-form. ' The streams cutting down have left the ground unevenly raised, in some places as small or large hillocks, and in other places as hills ranging in varying, heights up' to 500 ft. or 600 ft. Some of the hills are extremely steep, meeting at the base in narrow V-shaped ravines others are more gently, sloping, often with intervening valleys aggraded so that small areas of flat are formed between the slopes. The hills themselves vary from being bluntly or sharply razorback to easy rolling convex surfaces. From any point of the highest ridges 1,300 ft. above sea-level —the country looks like a billowy sea as hill after hill rises in wave-like regularity, lighted and shaded according to its disposition to the sun. The whole land-formhills of various

heights and shapes, with the intervening ravines and small aggraded flats—we may call the “ hill complex ” (Figs. I and 2).

The surface soil is a light, friable, chocolate-coloured loam ; the subsoil is either sandstone or blue papa. The sandstone formation may often be seen lying on top of the papa at the junctions of the two great subsoil formations. Here often a layer of sandstone alternates with a layer of blue papa, telling the geologist in his own language of oscillations of the sea-floor prior to the uplift .which decided that thenceforth only sandstone would be deposited instead of the deepsea ■ deposit of blue papa. In the two subsoil formations, but more particularly in the sandstone, pockets or seams of a fairly’hard pebble-and-shell conglomerate occur. . This “ shell rock ” is quarried and used as road-metal. ' .

The two . classes of subsoil are held , by the local farmers to have quite different agricultural possibilities,, that of . blue papa being, considered superior in quality to the sandstone. . Nature, in . the great forests it has produced on these classes ■ of soil, has differentiated scarcely at -all between the two. The forest cover is, in the main, similar throughout both formations.

TYPES OF FOREST.

In view of the fact that the forest is a valuable index in deciding which grasses and clovers are the most likely to be successful -in the establishment of grassland on these soils, a short description of the forest, particularly from the point of view of the disposition of its species in regard to the various aspects of the country, will be of considerable value. Tawa is essentially the dominant primary-forest tree (Fig. 3). If we start from the small flats and gradually rise up to the highest ridges we passthrough a sequence of forest-growth. On the small aggraded flats between the slopes (Fig. 2) kahikatea (Podocarpus dacrydioides), rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum), and pukatea (Laurelia novae-zealandiae) predominate; but as.the ground begins to rise, so tawa ■ {Beilschmiedia tawa) comes in, and on the lower levels and in the gullies it is associated with rimu, miro {Podocarpus ferruginous), matai (Podocarpus spicatus), and maire (Olea Cunninghamii). The rimu, miro, matai, and maire become increasingly fewer as we ascend, and almost pure forests of tawa are met with a short way up the slope., Within the rimu, miro, matai, maire, and tawa forests tree-ferns areabundant, particularly the weki {Dicksonia squarrosa) and hemitelia; (Hemitelia Smithii) ; and in the drier parts the mamaku (Cyathea medullaris) rises gracefully through an opening in the forest-roof. Within these forests also the floor is, in the main, covered with terrestrial; ferns. Weki extends well up into the tawa forest, but here the genera! forest-floor is more or less free of ferns or other growth, with the exception of the graceful single crape fern (Leptopteris hymenophylloides), which may be abundant. ; ■

As we climb higher up the slopes and get on to the poorer and higher ridges the tawa becomes intermingled with kamahi (Weinmannia racemosa), hinau {Eloeocarpus - dentatus), rewarewa (Knightia excelsa), rata (Metrosideros robusta), and totara (Podocarpus totara) ; then higher up still, on the poorest and driest ridges and knolls, the tawa almost disappears, and black-beech (Nothofagus Solandri) there

predominates (Fig. 4). These groups, then, comprise essentially the primary forest, and they are of immense significance, as will appear later, in deciding the varieties of grasses and clovers that should be sown. The foregoing is an account strictly appertaining to the ancient forests, which are here termed the “ primary forest.”

Where there have been factors at work that have destroyed the primary forest within the last hundred years an altogether different growth has. come into being, varying in its components and from the primary forest according to the longer or shorter time that has elapsed since that destruction, and according to soil and aspect. . Such growth may be in the form of fern or scrub of different sorts, or it may consist of small trees. Both classes of growth must be regarded as developmental stages by which the primary forest may once more re-establish itself. To the fern and scrub may be applied the term secondary scrub,” and to the small tree associations that of “ secondary forest.” The primary forest is really the aged adult; the secondary scrub and the secondary forest are but phases in the life-cycle or processes of growth leading to the adult. primary forest. Here, then, we find in natural vegetation, as in our grasslands, that there is succession— is to say, there is a series' of ' plant communities, one type' by its growth preparing the way . for the next, which when established will' replace its foster parent., The latter .in fits turn will, grow— will again modify the conditions so that a still higher class of forest-growth may establish, and this,- too, will ultimately be replaced by a still-higher forest-form. And so the succession of forest types goes on until finally there arises an association that ceases to change. This stage is old age ; it is the climax of a gradual development. .It is called a." climax association.” Development, of course, never stops in nature, but the change after a shorter or longer time becomes so slow that for all intents and purposes the scenes have ceased to change.

Actually it would appear that in the Whangamomona district there were only two climax trees—tawa on the slopes and kahikatea on the. wetter flats. On the slopes, then, all the other primary-forest trees present would be looked upon as preparing the way for the tawa climax, and we could tentatively arrange them in the following order of development : Black-beech, totara, kamahi, rewarewa, hinau, ■ maire, rimu, rata, tawa. The present disposition of the trees as they appear in the primary forest supports this order of development. Where there are old and often knarled totara, black-beech, rewarewa, &c., we find the undergrowth not to be young trees of these species (though some young rewarewa may establish there), but sapling tawa growing strong and vigorous (Fig. 5). We find that the rata are, in the main, well up on the ridges — survivals, apparently, of a general rata retreat before the tawa advance. The great forest-tree that supports the rata in its juvenile stage is the rimu, and consequently it may be inferred that a rimu association preceded that of the rata, or else the rata could not have developed into the large forest-trees seen on the ridges. As far as the regeneration and development of the primary forest is concerned, the black-beech now plays no part on the lower slopes. The beech, then, would appear to be either the. survival remnant of a once high-altitude forest, or else the remnant of the first forest that clothed the lowland, but which' for ages has been located on

the poorer ridges, this habitat being maintained because the processes of weathering and of plant-decay which have made soil for the lowlands are rendered null and void, owing to the fact that the waste is removed down to the lower levels almost immediately it is formed. Thus on the ridges there is virtually continually exposed the original dry, rockysoil material which characterized the surface countless ages ago, while the lowland soils have been so improved • and added to that other forest-trees have been able to oust the beech entirely from these soils.

As the beech is the remnant of a physiologically dry-condition forest, so the kahikatea is the remnant of a low-lying, wet-condition forest. Development on a stationary land-surface, it would appear,

all tends towards the middle or average state i.e., that state, as far as moisture content is concerned, midway between the physiologically dry-condition forest, on the one hand, and the wet swampy forests of the flats, on the other hand. . The tawa is essentially a tree admirably suited to the moderately wet soils, and thus essentially suitable to form the forest climax. One other fact that supports the contention of the tawa climax is that tawa forest can reproduce itself in, situ, the young tawa establishing well in the shade of the parent forest-tree. There are very few other forest-trees capable of reproducing themselves in this way. Kahikatea, miro, rewarewa, and hinau may successfully establish in their own shade, but most of our forest-trees —rimu, rata, kauri, beech, kamahi, &c. —demand more light than penetrates to the

floor for the successful establishment of their seedlings ; consequently such forests must have open land bordering them into which they can extend,., or else depend for their continued occupation of the soil on their..ability to compete for the bared ground rendered available for occupation on the death of a parent tree. Of those trees mentioned earlier only the beech seems capable of . doing this. • ■ ■ '

■ In making tawa the climax forest-tree of the. Taranaki back-country I am confirming the work of Cockayne,* who states : “ Tawa forest may, I think, be considered the final stage, in the series of. succession forming taxad forest ; that is . to say, whenever' it' occurs one may conclude that ’forest rich- in taxads previously occupied the ground. In support of this view, all degrees of intermediate stages exist between the rimu and tawa forests.” -

THE ORDER OF DEVELOPMENT OF SECONDARY SCRUB AND SECONDARY FOREST ASSOCIATIONS.

In the initial grassing of the hill country under consideration there is an incessant struggle against secondary - scrub growth—water - fem {Histiopteris incisa), bracken-fern (Ptevidium esculentum), manuka (Leptospermum scopavium), wineberry (Aristptelia serrata), &c.which types of vegetation constitute really the first, phases' in the succession back to forest. Nature all the time is endeavouring to win back the area to forest, and in a district of fairly good soil and heavy rainfall the advantage is all with the secondary growth. In the Taranaki backcountry there is no set of grasses at present known that could be used which in themselves would be . sufficiently strong and aggressive to annul the great tendency of that country to revert to secondary growth. The all-important factor of stocking must come in to assist the grasses sown. -

It is the writer’s intention, before actually considering the suitable pasture species and their establishment and management on this country, to set out in a fairly detailed way the type of secondary scrub and secondary forest one meets with, and to show how every type of vegetation that arises is part of nature’s plan to afforest once more those denuded hill-slopes. In other words, the succession from the forestburn back to standing primary. forest will be considered step by step. This study is important because if we know the sequence of events and the consequences of a certain method of treatment, then are we the more able successfully to avoid that which is undesirable and attain that which is desirable. Where the objective is good grassland, nature has to be combated at every .’ turn, and as . we consider the types of secondary' growth that arise under different" farm-management it will be seen that she is by no means a mean adversary. The grassing of forested hill country is a man’s job, and too seldom do we realize the grit, perseverance, and foresight displayed by our pioneer settlers who have struggled and won against great odds. ....

A succession normally begins with a bared surface — termed the “initial surface ’’—and'it : presupposes that all or most of the original plant cover has been destroyed. This is so in the case of the'settler’s forest-burn. The forest is felled in the winter or early spring and left

to dry until the following autumn. If the season is settled, the later the burn can be left the better. The seeds are sown on the ashes even while these, are yet warm. In addition to this sowing there is another set of seeds well and truly planted on the forest-burn. These latter may be spoken of as “ volunteers.” .■ They, consist largely of indigenous species—some seeds, some spores-—and also of certain wind-borne introduced species, such as spear-thistle - {Carduus lanceolatus) and catsear {Hypochoeris radicatd). For the first two or three years there may be a dense volunteer association of spear-thistle, and, where the grass has failed to take, the rosettes of catsear may form, even in the second year, a pure association. So long as the spear-thistle does not grow too rank or dense there 1 is not much harm done to the grass sward, but if the big rosette plants form so that the turf becomes much shaded there is bound to be damage.

In the third and fourth. years the native plants begin to manifest themselves, and particularly is this true if the take of grass has been poor or has quickly run out. A reduced grass cover means the withdrawal of stock, and it must be remembered that stock is the biggest factor in secondary-growth control. So long as we can keep stock in fairly large numbers on the area there is scarcely any danger of secondary growth. Thus the stocking of the new forest-burn will have a very decided influence in determining just 'what secondary scrub establishes. ' . •

THE SUCCESSION ON A BADLY BURNT AREA, UNSTOCKED.

If a burn is such that only a very poor take of grass is possible there is not the same establishment of catsear or spear-thistle. ( The area cannot be heavily stocked, and fern and scrub growth immediately makes its appearance. Weki also may grow out afresh from . their unburnt trunks. Water-fern is the most characteristic fern 1 of these bad burns, but soon there comes to. be associated with it wineberry, lacebark {Hoheria populnea), tree-fuchsia {Fuchsia excorticata), and tutu {Coriaria sarmcntoscc).. On the poorer ground there , is not so much water-fern, and wineberry, lacebark,. and tree-fuchsia may be absent. Bracken-fern, and tutu here come in.. In steep shady places there may’be large masses of tupari {Blechnum capense), while on the open sunny knolls kamahi may re-establish. The bracken-fern phase and the succession from this point will be considered later.

.... ■ In the early, secondary-forest growth following on a bad burn wineberry is easily the leader, and it may form quite a dense association from an early period (Fig. 6). .Tree-fuchsia and lacebark really come in a little later than the wineberry, but the three ultimately intermingle to form the first secondary-forest phase . of the succession back to primary. forest. As the wineberry, tree-fuchsia, lacebark, &c., raise their branches higher a certain amount of light filters in. on to the floor, and so soon as this .happens further species of . trees establish (Fig. 7). Mahoe {Melycitus ramifiorus), karamu {Coprosmd robusta), kanono {Coprosma grandifolia), rangiora {Br achy glottis repanda), hangehange {Geniostoma ligustrifolium), patete {Scheffler a digitata), fivefinger {Nothopanax arbor eum), red-pepper tree {Drimys color ata), lance wood {Pseudopanax crassifolium), tarata {Pittosporum eugenioides), kohuhu {Pittosporum tenuifolium), kaiku {Parsonsia heterophylla), and kaikomako

(Pennantia corymbosa) are among the most common trees that come in. Moisture- and shade-loving. ferns such as . Asplenium bulbiferum, Goniopteris pennigerd, &c., also make their appearance. It is. to such an association that is here given the term “secondary forest." It is essentially a shady and fairly moist forest, and, unquestionably, conditions in such a forest' are entirely propitious for the establishment of the. primary-forest trees. What is more, it is here that certain of the forest-trees establish,' and it is not until these conditions arise that such trees as tawa or miro can successfully do so. Kahikatea and rimu also may establish here, but these can and usually do .establish' very well in much more open secondary forest, as will be mentioned later.

The foregoing is essentially the normal process of regeneration on the better soils and under no stocking whatsoever. We may with safety look upon any soil that goes through a dominant wineberry-lacebark-mahoe phase as being good potential grassland soil. Such is the succession in the gullies and better slopes of the . Taranaki backcountrv.

SUCCESSION AFTER A GOOD BURN AND WITH LIGHT STOCKING

’ Reverting back to the forest-burn, and presupposing a clean burn and -a. fairly successful. take of grass, spear-thistle and catsear, as before mentioned, occupy their quota of ground. On the bare knolls also piripiri (A'caeria Sanguisorbae) will have successfully established, and if the area felled was forest into which sheep have had access, or if the burn has been stocked in the first year with ..sheep from piripiriinfested areas, then this plant may be very common on all the drier knolls where the grass has failed to take. If such a piripiri-infested burn is stocked entirely with sheep, so soon as the grass surrounding the drier knolls is . eaten bare the piripiri will' spread, and in five or six years under constant sheep-grazing an almost pure association of this plant will have resulted (Fig. 8). Under cattle or mixed stocking it does not. spread, and is gradually reduced until it virtually disappears. . Hence on cattle-country it takes no part in the succession.

p In the second or third year of the new burn, in the shade of logs and around . stumps, water-fern and hard fern (Paesia scabe-rula) establish themselves. Hard fern also occupies dry knolls, establishing firstly in some shady crevice or niche of the knoll (Fig. 9), and then spreading outward by . means . of its wiry overground runners. Stock do not care for these two plants, and no matter how hard-pressed they may be they will not eat hard fern. At fairly high altitudes where there is more rain water-fern .may form, under light stocking, an almost pure association. Hard fern, however; is the more important one as far as natural afforestation is concerned. Stock ■ do not • eat it, and once it gets well established and just so long as the area-is kept stocked and the grass thus kept short the hard fern ' will spread. Ultimately the clumps will have so enlarged and the feed be so reduced that all stock, practically speaking, are forced off the area (Fig. 10). In this hard-fern’ association, then, we have a very decided phase in the succession to forest.

While the spread of hard fern has been going on, and particularly under sheep-stocking, the next phase in the succession has commenced. Bracken-fern, under light stocking, makes its appearance in

the forest-burn three or four years .after the forest-fire. It .establishes in .shade, under strewn branches or around logs, but it can and does also establish in the central portion of the water-fern and hard-fern patches (Fig. n). By its strong underground rhizome its spread outward is fairly rapid, and so soon as no cattle run on the area the bracken-fern invasion is fairly fast. Sheep will scarcely eat bracken fern at all, particularly when the frond is expanded, but .cattle keep it well eaten down when forced on -to it. Hard fern, and .water-fern to 4 lesser extent, are non-shade endurers. Bracken-fern is a very much taller-growing, plant than either of its fellows, and by its-growth and spread it forms in the course of four . or five years . so dense a cover over the hard fern and' water-fern that these become entirely killed ; out, leaving the bracken-fern in sole -command of the .situation : (Fig. 12),. ; The .bracken-fern association may therefore be looked upon as another phase or step of the succession back to forest.

j If the burn has been of a very intense nature,: so that all forest-tree seeds have been killed > out, this bracken-fern phase in .the' succession may last for hundreds of years. ” In ' the Taranaki back-country, however, burns , are seldom so intensely hot that this happens. In .this country, in the gullies and better soils, the next step in the succession begins after four or five or more years. -Wineberry, lacebark, fuchsia, and tutu make their appearance—wineberry in particular (Fig. 13) — and now begins the replacement of the bracken and the commencement of the secondary-forest cover, the processes and ..future development of which are almost identical with that which arises from the initial wineberry association already dealt with. ’

The bracken-fern phase does not necessarily follow on the hard-fern phase. It may take place in four or five years after the burn, particularly if very little stocking has been carried on. On the country too poor for wineberry and its associates bracken-fern may form the first step in the succession back to forest. Whether, however, the steeper fern-slopes have been derived from the .initial burn or after the hard-fern phase their replacement in the Taranaki back-country by ■secondary forest is much the same. On this higher .and drier fern country wineberry scarcely takes any part in the replacement. - Tutu is perhaps the prime successional species, but bush-lawyer (Rubus [australis) also comes in, and in the barer places appear koromiko [(Veronica salicifolia) ? manuka, and karamu. The replacement is;slow, and it may be twenty or -thirty years or longer before there is much appearance of these -shrubs among the bracken. ■ In certain ■slightly richer soils the replacement is, however, more .rapid, and once begun other trees • come in. ; Lancewood, fivefinger, kohuhu, jtarata, mahoe, kamahi, rangiora, putaputaweta. {Carpodetua serratus), and hangehange are among the chief (Fig. 14). We thus get in ‘forty or fifty years’ time a secondary forest of a somewhat different .type from that of the ..rather ’.better and damper soils of .the gullies and better slopes. This type develops into the primary, forest by a replacement . of .certain .of its members, and , by -.the addition .of certain other" primary-forest trees which establish .either in the course of the development of the secondary forest or in the shade of the association when well grown. Kamahi develops tremendously and may form an ..almost pure association, but, generally speaking, while the

kamahi are quite small, hinau, rewarewa, totara, and possibly rimu establish themselves, and a mixed forest of these trees may exist for a long time. These forests by their growth during perhaps hundreds of years increase the humus content jp hence the humidity of the forest-floor, and thus' tawa is able to become established. In the meantime rata-vines will have established on the rimu (rata needs fairly open association forest to establish successfully), and by the time the. tawa forest is mature the rimu forest is almost entirely replaced by rata. It is this forest state which exists mainly on the hill-slopes of the Taranaki back-country to-day.

SUCCESSION FOLLOWING ON CLOSE AND CONTINUOUS GRAZING

There is yet another way . by which nature attains her . goal of a forest cover,. Let us go back to- within some ten years after the forest-burn that .has partly run to hard fern and partly to bracken-fern, but which is yet sufficiently well stocked to control the bracken. Unless the pasture is well'constituted and correctly managed the grasses sown will have become weakened, and the turf will have opened considerably. The constant grazing will have removed much fertility from the land, and unless this loss has been made good in one way or another the soil then 'really becomes too poor for the bracken-fern to spread very much. It is at this point that nature brings a very formidable agent to bear —manuka, the curse of the poorer hill country, comes in (Fig. 15). Once isolated plants become established the spread of manuka is remarkably rapid, and in six to eight years after its first appearance a dense manuka association may be formed. In the Taranaki backcountry manuka is becoming very troublesome on the poorer and even better slopes which have become reduced in surface-fertility by injudicious stocking and poor pasture-management. ,, Manuka is the plant nature uses regularly for afforestation processes on country too poor for bracken-fern, and so soon as the grass-sward begins to open up on the .country in question manuka seems ready to invade that soil. The manuka association is therefore a phase in the succession back to forest. on those soils that have been impoverished and which have failed to hold a sward of grass. The wineberry, the bracken-fern, and the manuka are really three equivalent stages in nature’s afforestation processes. The manuka association remains very dense and bushy for some years, but as the development proceeds the canopy top is ilifted .higher—and once more subdued light penetrates to the scrub floor. Again we find the-secondary forest .establishing, but the process here is; slower, -for the conditions of soil are still too poor to allow of rapid growth. As soon as sufficient light enters, kamahi and mahoe establish. Rangiora also comes in soon after, and this latter species is often a ■very important one in the afforestation of manuka areas, but it may be quite thirty years before this stage is reached. In the- Taranaki back-country kamahi and mahoe establish quite well among manuka on the better soils (Fig. 16), but where the greater depletion of soilfertility has gone on these appear later. Pimelia (Pimelia prostrata), 'snowberry (Gaultheria antipoda), gaultheria [Gaultheria rupestris), min'gimingi (Leucopogon fasciculatus), and club-moss {Lycopodium volubile) establish along with the stunted manuka, or on .extremely depleted soils these . may even precede the manuka. In such an association

fivefinger may establish in abundance, and this is then followed closely by kamahi and totara. On the floor of such an association kamahi may readily re-establish, and here we find also the rewarewa quite at home.

Thus here we have perhaps one of the quaintest secondary forests to be found anywhere in New Zealand (Fig. 17). Fivefinger is the dominant tree, with odd totara and kamahi scattered here and there. In the better lower parts one or two wineberries may be seen, now old and decrepit. The lower story is filled with scrubthin sapling manuka, scrubby kamahi, snowberry, and odd lancewood— parts draped with dense masses of club-moss. Here perhaps club-moss is repeating its life-function of millions of years ago, preparing the way, now as then, for the great advance of the higher flowering-plants. As the conditions in this association improve, kamahi, rewarewa, and lancewood establish in greater numbers (Fig. 18), and this number is added to by totara, kohuhu, and tarata; and on the floor tupari may appear. This forest continues its development. The kamahi,. rewarewa, fivefinger, tarata, kohuhu, lancewood, &c., grow into small -trees, and the underscrub of mingimingi, gaultheria, snowberry, and clubmoss perishes. We then have once more the typical forest of the poorer slopes (Fig. 19), which ultimately will give way by degrees to tawa.

At Tahora, in a secondary forest such as this, may be seen the stately rimu setting out in truly graceful beauty to win . back for that soil the primary forest that is in fact its heritage.

GENERAL.

From the foregoing it would appear that on the country in question secondary growth baffled the. farmer at every turn ; but secondary growth of a good character, vigorous and quick-growing, tells rather of possibilities of a country than of impossibilities. It tells of wealth in those soils if only this can be ' directed into channels useful to the farmer. A systematic study • of this country is urgently needed, so that there may be sorted out and trials made of those pasturespecies and methods of pasture-management which are seen to be giving the desired result. (To be continued.)

A -one-year-old Ewe. — Mr. M. R. Findlay, Inspector of Stock, Kurow, Otago, sends the following note Longevity among our domestic animals is not often brought under notice, unless it is the age of some faithful horse which has served a shepherd or family for life, or perhaps a pony which has carried all the junior members of a household to school, while the ripe old age of some of .our faithful canine friends is also at times commented upon. It is only on rare occasions that old age among sheep calls for particular attention..' A ewe, the property of Mr. James Menzie, of Rosehill, Hakataramea, should just about be ! given pride of place in this respect, for, as the saying goes, she is ‘ old enough to vote.' This animal was born in January, 1902, from a Merino ewe by a Border Leicester ram, and was raised as a pet. She has reared seventeen lambs, but for the past three seasons has not been put to the ram, her owner wishing to see how long he can keep her alive. . Unlike most pet sheep, she was never a fencer, a fact which no doubt saved her from the butcher’s hook years ago.”

*L. Cockayne, The Vegetation of New Zealand, Leipzig, 1921, p. 139.