BUSH SICKNESS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LV, Issue 9366, 17 December 1926, Page 4

BUSH SICKNESS

Giving evidence for the defence in a case at Hamilton, in which Frederick Freeman Rogers sued the Matarawa Land Company for £IOOO damages for alleged misrepresentation in respect to the sale of a farm at Tokoroa, Samuel Burton, for over 20 years a Government veterinarian, and now in private practice, -said that in 1919 he investigated bush sickness at Atamaku. The Government instituted investigations of the disease, hut proved nothing. Witness discovered the disease was present in the soil. The soil was very pliable. Cattle, sheep and goats pulled their feed, disloding some of the soil, and took In quantities of silica, which was really ground glass. This set up an inflammatory condition of the intestines, until it irritated to such an extent that the beasts were unable to digest their food. Oxide of silica had been discovered in the excreta of cows fed on the land. Tn all post mortem examinations of cattle which died from bush sickness, he found from one to two handfuls of ground glass in the stomach. Cattle thrived for a time on this land, and after they sickened, the cattle should be removed to another district, when they would recover after a few weeks. To witness’s mind there was no doubt his theory was correct. His Honour; Has your theory been accepted Not by the Government Other scientists have, however, agreed with my theory. Dr. Giiruth thought it was due to cattle eating the soil The disease is not known anywhere else in the world, and was peculiar to the Tokoroa district. Export farmers and valuers declared the land to be good dairying and. provided it was properly handled. ‘ I