Native grasslands in southern Australia have undergone a massive transformation since European settlement. But the evidence for the speed of that transformation has been hard to come by. It's hard to guess whether people noticed the changes, or simply realised one day that grasslands were gone.
The following is an extract of an article from The Australasian, dated 18th October 1878. It shows that within 50-80 years of settlement, an understanding of the impacts of agriculture on native grasses was already obvious. And, interestingly, there were already calls to develop a native grassland "seed industry". It's worth noting this type of information - perhaps the earliest record of grassland transformation in Australia - because we are still grappling with the same issues in 2014 in many respects.
It should make us reflect on what we now know, and yet how little has changed in some respects. We're still thinking about grazing regimes that promote native grasses & still grappling with how to best produce large quantities of seed. Enjoy.
SUMMER MANAGEMENT OF NATIVE PASTURES
"The deterioration of our native pastures as regards their
fattening powers ....
is due not only to the removal from the soil of certain proportions of the
elements of fertility in the form of bone, flesh, and wool, but in some degree also to the loss of the best and most nutritious
grasses, which inevitably occurs under the system of depasturing commonly
practised in the whole of these colonies. Whether the grasses are only annuals
or are those known as perennials, they must soon die out unless measures are taken to ensure a re-seeding of the ground at certain
intervals.
Even the longest lived grasses must be renewed from seed
occasionally; the old stools become enfeebled by continuous grazing, and the
sorts that are most relished by sheep are actually eaten down into the soil, so
that in the course of a few years they disappear altogether from the ground. Of
this the common kangaroo grass is a familiar example; it will not bear the
constant nibbling of stock, especially of sheep, and as it is often the only
green feed, in hot dry weather, the plants are eaten completely out. Within unstocked or lightly stocked
enclosures, as between railway fences, native grasses of all kinds continue to
thrive as formerly. They have the opportunity of renewing themselves from seed
annually, and as they are rarely fed down they grow far more vigorously than
grasses of the same species depastured in the ordinary way.
Here is a lesson of which graziers great and small may take note,
if they have any desire to preserve the native grasses from extinction. The
question whether it is desirable to preserve them at such cost and trouble as
may be needed to effect that object is one upon which old and experienced graziers agree. They all affirm that no exotic
grasses fatten so quickly as the native pasturage used to do, and there is an
equally general agreement of opinion that the stock are far less healthy on
" English grasses " than on the native pasturage of the country.
It
is a principle in English husbandry, when laying down lands in permanent
pasture, to employ as large a number as possible of species. In this they only
imitate nature, for on examining a square yard of well-grassed ground it is
found that the number of species thereon usually varies from 50 to over 200. In this country the number of species is not so great upon the
plains, but there is a very considerable variety of pasture plants in districts
having a name for fattening. In attempting to imitate nature, and replace the
lost natural pasturage by sowing down, as in England, general mixtures of
grasses, colonists have met with little success.
In the course of a few years the greater number of the grasses are
found to have disappeared, leaving only the most robust, or those which by
growing all the year round eventually extinguish the more delicate, which, are,
usually, also the most desirable. Whilst, therefore, pastures of English grasses can be easily formed, they are found
wanting in variety of food—an element of the greatest importance in maintaining
the health of the stock. They supply a great abundance of rank and watery food,
instead of the more moderate quantity of sweet and healthful food afforded by the native pasturage.
Seeing, then, the importance of maintaining the health, of our
stock, the preservation of the native grasses becomes a matter of the first
moment, especially to residents in the warmer districts, in which the so-called
English grasses will not thrive. It has been remarked that when once the native grasses are gone a full sward can never again
be established. Graziers, therefore, should conserve the pastures, and in order
to succeed in doing this they will find it necessary to give some little
attention to the habits of the several species as regards longevity and time of seeding. The winter grasses, for example, seed in
spring; the summer ones later in the season, and at different periods of the
summer and autumn. Unless these points are known and regarded, some important
grasses will very soon become extinct, even in pastures which are allowed a
season of rest from stock, with the object of permitting them to shed a crop of
seed. It is obvious that unless the latter plan be adopted the alternative one
of sowing native grass seeds must be pursued, and hitherto this has been out of the
question, no such article having been upon the market.
The business of growing Australian grass seeds might surely afford
profitable work for many farmers in different districts. Harvesting would, for
the most part, take place before the grain harvest commenced; the late grasses
would not be ready until after that work had been concluded. We can hardly
imagine any line in which more could be made with certainty than in growing
crops of native grasses specially for seed. Men of intelligence and good powers
of observation would readily determine what species ripen simultaneously, and
might, therefore, be grown together. The first matter is to collect sufficient
seed by hand, and the present time is the season for commencing."
You can see the original article at http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/2982085
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