Putting Land to Grass.

It is of the utmost importance that a really good selection of permanent grasses should be sown on bush land, as it cannot be ploughed to renew. It is a mistake to suppose that a good mixture of permanent grasses costs much, if anything, more than one of two or three local- page 32 grown varieties only—such as rye, cocksfoot, timothy, with a little clover. This does for temporary grass for land under plough. A prejudice has grown up against many of the imported seeds from the fact of there being at one time much imported seed in the market that was dead or nearly so. Settlers buying this without guarantee or testing were naturally disappointed at the small or total absence of results. Seeds can now be imported from England at moderate cost guaranteed to germinate a certain percentage when shipped, and for purity from weeds, another most important matter. Some of the best grasses—meadow foxtail, meadow fescue, crested dogstail, hard fescue, &c., &c,—are now grown in the colony for sale, and of good quality and moderate price. These have the advantage of not risking damage in the tropics and sea voyage. This latter industry is worthy the attention of bush farmers, as the new-sown bush land would thus he fairly free of weeds. These grasses are largely grown for seed for sale by the small farmers of France and Germany, and much that has come out here through English seedsmen was grown on the Continent by small farmers. These seeds would be some time before they fell as low in price as some now grown here, as cocksfoot. Meadow fescue and meadow foxtail are most valuable grasses for good land, excellent feeding grasses, and superior to cocksfoot for pasture or hay. It has been a way with some imperfectly informed people, not well acquainted with the subject, to call the grasses, except rye, cocksfoot, timothy, fancy grasses, and to look upon sowing them as a fad. This is a great mistake, and has seriously injured the future value of a large proportion of the expected permanent pasture now laid down in the bush lands in particular. This will be an appreciable national loss in a country that depends so much on its pasture.