FARM NOTES.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12480, 17 April 1906, Page 9

FARM NOTES.

"Weekly Trass «nd Refaree." Tuberculosis in cattle and its possible cure by tho recent discoveries of Professor yon Behring, at Berlin, us the subject of communication by the AgentGeneral (Mr Taverner) to tlie Minister for Agriculture (Mr Swinburne). Professor Behring's claim its that by the injection of "tuberculoso" cattle are rwrtdered immune from tuberculosis. The anti-toxin is capable of transport, so that it could U> used hy f.-irmei*s them-s-jlveß. A further claim is made that young calves could bo "vaccinated," and that, after treatment, absolutely pure milk could l>e obtained from cows: whose milk nreviously contained tuherciuar bnoilli." Mr Taverner hr.fi written _to the British oonsul in Berlin, requesting a copy of a translation of Professor Behring's paper on the -subject. Wifh reference to the annual ram sales to l>e held in Sydney the first week in July, following the New South Wales Shoepbreeders' Show, the selling agents havo agreed that the sales of all Brutish breeds shall take place during show week, and tlio sheep of these breeds, exhibited at the show, shall l>e sold on the Saturday in their pens, on the showground, this arrangement ha.s lieen considered necessary, on account of the larga number of sheep, particularly merinos and Shropshire,., entered for sale making it impossible to dispose of all the animals within the week following the show, unless the sales of British breeds and merinos were held on the on_ day, an arrangement that would not give satisfaction. The Tasmanian brooder* have fallen in with the arrangement. , . • 1 Tlio Queensland Minister of Agriculture, who has returned from a visit to the central district, scud that to erne who had lived en the const country the pasture was a revelation. He had seen ecr.opille.nit pasture on the coast, but never seen anything in Australia to compare "with that in the Emerald district, and on the downs between Bnrcddine and Taongreach. Since the drought of 1002 grass of great value had taken poßfrtwsion cf the country' in the neightwtrrhecd of Emerald. The grass was botanic-illy known ns "panicum jubiflorum.'' Mr Denham said :—"There are thousands of acres like a magnificent field of wheat, standing about 3.ft hieh, and very thick indeed." Tlie late Mr Jonas Webb, of Melton Rons, whose death was recently announced, was known chiefly to the outside world as an eminently successful breeder of Shorthorn cattle, and, on a similar _cale, of Lincoln longwool sheep. A son of the late Mr Jona< Webb, of Bahraham, whose name iindelibly associated with the rise and progress of the Southdown breed of sh_«-p, Mr Webb belongs to o family noted in farming circles for generation*? back, and, although it was originally intended that he should follow a different career, it was not surprising tha* the bent of his mind should lie m tl:*; direction of an agricultural life, an< accordingly about forty yeans ago he 1 settled down on the estate on which b< ended his days, and en which ail his stock-breeding achievements have bee: attained. Mr Webb having inheritec' the family taste for tlie Bates ttraixt cf Shorthorns adhered strictly to pure Bates cattle throughout, and possibly there is not another heid in existence which is so absolutely free from outside bends.