FARM TOPICS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9117, 30 May 1895, Page 3

FARM TOPICS.

"Weekly Press." A Stock Inspector Wanted,

The New Zealand Department of Agriculture advertises in another column for a competent man, with a thorough know, ledge of scab, to till the position of Inspector cf Stock in the Falkland Islands* A three years' engagement at £4C-0 a year is offered. Applications must go in soon Success of Vaccination- fob Anthrax. Mr J. A. Gunn, of Yalgogrin station, gives the following results of vaccination for anthrax canied out in Victoria and New South Wales iv the season IS9I-5. Considerably more than balf-a-million sheep wero treated, and iho success was absolute in 500,000, while there were failures more or less iv the protection piven to under 40,000, chiefly in districts remote from the laboratory, and where the time occupied in conveying the vaccine to the work was very great. The value of the work done to the country in geueral may be gauged from the fact that, placing the minimum loss on the half million successfully vaccinated sheep at the low rate (for anthrax-infected flocks) of 20%, the loss without vaccination would havo been ICO.OOO, whereas with vaccination it Is practically nil. Swine Fever. In the opinion of Mr Sanders Spencer, one of the leading English breeders of pigs, the efforts of the Board of Agriculture in England are neutralized by the absence of similar measures in Ireland. We shall never be free from swine fever, he says, so long as lri-.h pigs, whether diseased or not, are allowed free movement. Shropshire.? Is* Favour. Mr H. T. Simmons, Tlie Meadows, near Battle, has sent several consignments of Shropshire ewes and rams to his brother, Mr P. D. Simmons, of Natal, during the last six months, and another lot is just leaving. It appears that the Shropshires are getting rapidly into favour there. Turnips as a Remedy for Worms. "Bruni," the pastoral editor of the Australasian,' mentions turnips as a remedy for worms iv sheep. Some years ago, while on a visit to Mount Gambler, he met with an instance in which the weaners in a piece of very "wormy" country escaped the attacks of worms, and came into the shed at two-tooth as large in frame as the ordinary worm-infested fourtooths. The plan adopted was this: the lambs, when weaned, were put on turnips, and the result was that not a sheep was attacked with worms. It would appear that there is some principle in the brassica family of plants that gives the lambs immunity from the attacks of worms. It is said that cabbage, mustard or rape will answer the purpose quite as well as the turnip. The Brookside Milker Wanted in Mashonaland. Mr Laurence Davies received a letter ou May 20th from a Mr George Haupt of the British South Africa Company's Farm at Salisbury, Mashonaland, asking price and particulars of the Brookside milker. Mr Haupt writes:—" As we have mostly native cows wibh teats of about one inch long, please explain how the finger pieces would be fastened air-tight to the teats, and if the least movement of the cow does not throw the whole apparatus out of gear. Such a Milker, if suitable, would be. a godsend to us, as we have great difficulty in getting Kaffirs to milk at reasonable prices."