REVIEW OF PLANT INTRODUCTION WORK ON PASTURE SPECIES IN NEW ZEALAND

Abstract

Perhaps the feeding value and the soil protection value of herbage plants has been appreciated more extensively in recent years, and it may have been realised, also, that the plants which have successfully resisted soil erosion and provided useful fodder, hay, or seed are those which have become completely adapted to the soil, and to the climate, of the region in which they have been grown. With all useful plants important ecological factors have been the habit of growth, resistance to extremes of temperature, the period of the year in which most growth has been made, resistance to plant diseases, relative palatability, and a prime consideration alwavs has been how much forage any particular plant will yield. For soil conservation work the type of root, whether deep rooting or surface rooting, and whether fibrous or rhizomatous, always is of special importance.