NOTES FOR FARMERS

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 11049, 29 August 1896, Page 6

NOTES FOR FARMERS

’ The Queensland Minister of Agriculture has laid the foundation stono of a new agricultural college to accommodate fiftysix pupils. ‘ : The Virginia, .experiment station has;been investigating Texas fever in cattle, and the result is not without interest in Australasia. It is known by various names, such as Spanish fever, murrain,' black water, red water, distemper and others. It is contagious and may he communicated with fatal effects by passing cattle apparently in perfect health. Adult cattle attacked usually die, while many , calves recover and are thereafter safe from ■attack. The disease is communicated only by a cattle tick which introduces the germs of the disease into the blood direct. The treatment is calomel followed by quinine. The methods of prevention are quarantine in uninfected districts, and extermination of the ticks in those which are infected. Extermination of the tick is managed as follows: There is a vat- containing several thousand gallons of water, upon which, floats an inch of West Virginia, black mineral oil; the cattle are driven to the vat through a shute terminating in a tilting platform, which dumps the animals . into the vat. They swim- through to the other side, and come out with .every tick upon them dead. ' The origin of domestic pigs is, says an exchange, like the origin of most of our domestic animals, so obscure that it is unsafe to speculate on the subject. In India both Brahmin and Mussulman reject the flesh of the wild boar as food. Detestation of the hog is a feeling entertained from remote antiquity. It was classed by the. Jews amongst the vilest animals; aqd in Egypt the swineherd was numbered among the profane and forbidden to enter the temples of the gods. Among the Ancient Greeks and Romans, although the office of swineherd appears to he held in contempt, the flesh of the hog was ip big-h estimation. , The Chinese have no prejudice against the' hog; on the contrary, they, rear large numbers of these animals for the sako of their flesh! The extraordinary dispersion of these animals over the world is most wonderful.’ On the discovery of the South Sea Islands by Europeans they were found to be well stocked with black-legged pigs. The f introduction of the small Chinese breed is one great source of improvement. The distribution in so many parts of the world of this family renders it highly probable the domestic breeds have b.een derived by the admixture of one or more species. The old superstition, now- so perfectly disposed of, that hybrids, the product of two species, were barren, or infertile, can no longer bo maintained. We thus arrive at the conclusion that the origin of the domestic pig is beyond our power of certifying.