I will deal with the question of inoculation under five headsA.-A few well-authenticated instances in my own experience of the efficacy of inoculation as a prophylactic.

B. The average mortality resulting from the inoculation of young cattle up to 2 years of age.

C.-The average mortality from the operation in aged cattle-cows only. D. The urgent necessity for careful treatment, or, in other words, the absolute necessity of leaving stock undisturbed for at least a month after inoculation.

E.-Mortality amongst pregnant cows, or their inclination to abort from the effects of the operation.

HISTORY OF THE CATTLE TICK ON GIN GIN.

The first ticks noticed on any of the Gin Gin herd was on the 1st June, 1898. They were found on the milking cows, and were about a fortnight old.

On the 2nd June a stud heifer in good order and in calf with her first calf died. I had the cow opened, and found marked symptoms of Texas fever. The bladder was full of redwater; the gall granulated, very much resembling thick pea-soup; and the spleen was quite rotten. I sent some blood down to Mr. Pound, who reported, under date 20th June, that he had found the microorganisms of tick fever. I at once put the stud cattle through the yards, and found ticks on all of them.

The first cattle inoculated were operated upon on 17th May, 1898, when to the best of my belief there were no ticks on the run. All these cattle showed signs of fever about 14 days after inoculation. None died, and they are all alive to-day and in healthy condition, although ticks are plentiful on them.

A.

On the 23rd and 24th May, 1898, 216 head of mixed cattle were operated upon, from newly branded calves of a month old up to very old cows, a few of which, by the number on their hide, were 15 years old, these cattle having been tailed for 3 weeks before being operated upon-owing to their being inclined to be wild-were still kept in hand during the day and put into a small paddock at night, and were so handled until the 18th June, when they were square-tailed and let go on their run. The loss was 3 head out of the lot of 216, and although ticks are fairly numerous on these cattle to-day they are healthy and in Al condition. Only one cow slipped her calf. The 3 head that died were cowsyoung heifers with their first calves; none of the very old cows died, although they got sick.

On the 11th June the balance of the stud cattle, 35 head, all ages, were inoculated, and none died, although most of them were sick. These cattle are alive and healthy-looking to-day, and fairly infested with ticks. This makes a total of 52 stud cattle operated on without a loss; 14 bush cattle were inoculated at the same time as the 35 head, and put in the same paddock; 3 head were also left in this paddock uninoculated, and they all died—i.e., the uninoculated 3.

On the 9th January, 1899, 350 head of mixed dairy cattle belonging to a selector were inoculated, and 16 died from the operation. When I last saw these cattle about a month ago, they were in splendid condition in spite of their having ticks on them. These cattle were put into three paddocks, and all the deaths, with the exception of one, occurred in one paddock. The owners of the cattle told me, a few days ago, that several cattle had died lately in the paddock where only the one beast died from inoculation, which seems to point to the fact that the operation did not react amongst the cattle in this paddock so well as in the others. I might state here that I sent 2 immune calves out to draw the blood from, the calves having been previously inoculated with 5 c.c. of virulent red-water blood. One of these calves is now on Kilkivan Station for experimental purposes.

On the 21st February, 1899, about 200 head belonging to different owners were inoculated, and the loss was very heavy, running up to 40 per cent. This heavy loss will be touched upon in Paper D.

On the 23rd March 51 head of mixed dairy cattle were operated upon for a selector, and his loss was 2 head. This mob will also be touched upon in Paper D.

On the 30th January, 1899, Mr. Tidswell, of Walla Station, sent me over 6 cows and calves that I might inoculate the calves, about 6 months old, for the purpose of obtaining immune blood to inoculate the Walla herd. The ticks were bad on Walla at the time. These cows and calves arrived late on the 30th January, and left again about 4 o'clock in the afternoon of 31st. With these cattle I sent over a Gin Gin stud cow and calf, both inoculated, and a Walla steer that had been running in the same paddock as the Gin Gin cattle for over a year. The steer was uninoculated, and, 14 days after leaving Gin Gin, 3 Walla cows and the steer died from red-water, and the Gin Gin cow was not a bit the worse for the journey, which was over 12 miles.

On another occasion, a man living in the Gin Gin township lost 22 head out of 35, and getting frightened he asked me to inoculate the balance, which I did. They all reacted; some got very sick, and 1 died from the operation. This was done over three months ago; and, although the 12 head left have since been pretty well infested, they are healthy-looking to-day. The only bullock-team to be seen working at Gin Gin is owned by a man, who, as he himself put it, "would just as soon see the bullocks die from inoculation as from ticks." I inoculated all his bullocks that he could get together-17 head-out of which 4 died. Some of them were old animals, and all had ticks on them. This team now consists of 13 I inoculated, 2 naturally recovered, and also 1 operated on at Monduran. They are covered with ticks, look well, and work steadily. Another man, who insisted on working his cattle without inoculating, lost all but 5 out of 16 in a fortnight. I could give many other instances of the value of inoculation, but think the cases I have quoted are sufficient to convince the most sceptical that inoculation is a prophylactic, and it is well worth risking the loss of a few head by performing the operation-until something better is discovered -than not so to do, and lose 50 per cent. of the herd from ticks.

B.

years

old in both sexes

The average mortality amongst young cattle to 2 up is not worth mentioning, provided that cleanliness, care, and common sense are used. I quote as examples the 17 young stud cows operated on on the 17th May, 1898, the balance of the stud cattle on 11th June, and the large mob (216) on 23rd and 24th May, amongst which there were many young cattle. All these cattle have been under my eye, and I have never seen a young calf deadunder 6 months old - from inoculation. I have, however, seen several young cattle on the run, about 18 months old, that have died from Texas fever, but whether set up by inoculation or by the tick itself I cannot say, as these cattle had ticks amongst them, and the disease was prevalent when I operated on them. If, however, young cattle are taken in hand before ticks appear, I am certain the loss will not be 1 per cent. More young cattle are killed by rough usage, bad blood, and dirty instruments than from the consequence of inoculation itself.

C.

The question as to the average mortality from the practice in aged cattle I can only deal with so far as cows are concerned, as I inoculated no old or aged males older than No. 4-excepting the few working bullocks mentioned before; and although I have done a good many Nos. 4 and 5, I cannot write with absolute certainty as to the loss, as many were turned out into the bush, and some got into large paddocks of 6,000 acres; but going by the number seen dead, I am pretty sure I am well within the mark when I quote 5 per cent. as the loss. I can, however, speak with certainty as to the loss amongst females, and refer you to my remarks on the 216 head inoculated on the 23rd and 24th May,

where the loss was 3 head, all cows. I cannot give you the exact number of cows in this mob of 216, but know there were over 100. With careful treatment and good blood, I am of the opinion the loss will not be more than 5 per

cent.

D.

The necessity for careful treatment by leaving cattle severely alone after inoculation cannot, in my opinion, be better shown than by drawing your attention in Paper A to the cattle treated on the 21st February (200 head) and 9th January (350 head). The same calf was used on both occasions to draw the immune blood from. I took the calf out to the 350 head, but made the owners of the 200 head bring their cattle into the station yards, a distance of about 8 miles, and they had to be driven back again. These cattle had a few ticks on them when they came, but they picked up a great number along the road. The comparative results were a loss of only 16 head out of the 350 operated on in their own paddocks, and 40 per cent. in the 200 which were brought to the station yards. I find, on looking up my notes, the actual number in this lot was 177, made up as under

Such a mortality as this naturally made me most anxious to discover the cause. I was asked by a selector, living close to the owners of the above cattle, to operate on his cattle, so used the same calf again with the result as stated in Paper A; but on this occasion sent the calf down to the cattle to be operated on. We have therefore three separate mobs of cattle inoculated from the one calf, the heaviest loss being among the lot that were driven about after the inoculation.

E.

The report as to the mortality and inclination to abort amongst pregnant cows, I am unable to substantiate. I have made the most careful inquiries amongst the dairy people whose herds I have inoculated, and can find no single case where such has happened; and in my own case amongst station cattle mentioned as being tailed (216 head), only one case was seen. Off camps inoculated in June and July, 1898, I branded up a healthy lot of calves in the following January in number equal to my previous year. It is true that in one case not far from here the number of cows that slipped their calves after inoculation was very heavy, but as I had nothing to do with this lot I only mention the fact. Amongst the Gin Gin stud cows 15 to 20 calves were dropped a fortnight after the operation, and they can all be seen to-day with their mothers. The mere fact of putting a cow fairly heavy in calf through a crush, even without inoculating her, is sufficient to cause abortion. The operation should, therefore, be postponed until after calving if possible. I have inoculated over 400 dairy cattle, and know of no single instance of a greater mortality amongst pregnant cows over any other ordinary cattle.

After a careful study of the whole question, I am certain the loss from inoculation can be put down at the outside at 5 per cent.; and if cattle are treated before the tick comes, the losses will be less. Had I known as much a year ago as I have learnt since, the Gin Gin herd would have all been inoculated before the arrival of the tick. A great many theories have been put forward as to how the tick crossed the quarantine line when fixed at the Boyne River. In my own mind I blame the sheep that travelled overland from Gracemere; the worst places for ticks on Gin Gin were the spots the sheep camped on.

General Notes.

TO RAISE EARLY POTATOES.

A VERY interesting experiment was made at the Queensland College last year with seed potatoes. A quantity of seed was kept in a shed under straw until the planting season came round. They were then carefully sorted, all those which had not well sprouted being rejected. Some unsprouted seed was sown fully 2 weeks before that which had sprouted. When the former appeared above the ground as a straggling crop showing a very large percentage of misses, the latter were already fit for earthing up, and there was scarcely one miss per acre.

We have seen it recommended that to secure an early crop, the seed should be kept in boxes in sand, where the potatoes will sprout much sooner than when left on the barn floor. Both this and the method given above will ensure early sprouting of the tubers.

THE BEST MANURE FOR POTATOES.

SIXTEEN tons of stable manure per acre will produce a larger crop than the most remunerative dressing of artificial manures. But employ a mixture of 8 tons of stable manure and 3 cwt. of nitrate of soda, or an equivalent quantity of sulphate of ammonia, and a far greater yield will be obtained. In fact, such a dressing gives the greatest yield and most remunerative results of any. Any artificial dressing for potatoes (if stable manure is unavailable) should contain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash. Omit one of these, and the result will be a poor crop. The omission of nitrogen will cause the greatest loss, and that of potash the least.

BLUESTONE.

THERE is no reason why farmers should allow themselves to be imposed upon by any unscrupulous vendors of bluestone for pickling wheat. The true "English" bluestone is hard, has a crystalline fracture, and is of a deep-blue colour. Some" colonial" bluestone is of a pale-blue, or green, or even whitish colour. It is soft, and is of little or no value for pickling seed wheat. It is not bluestone at all; it is merely copperas or greenstone-that is, sulphate of iron.

SUGAR PLANTATIONS IN CUBA.

SOME of these Cuban places were of princely size and equipment. Near Matanzas there is a finca belonging to a gentleman named Mendoza. Standing on his front gallery, he pointed to a hill 15 miles away, and remarked that all the intervening country was his, and the green on that distant hillside was his cane, and beyond were other fields-all his. Near Baracoa is a plantation where the fields stretch for 10 miles on either side of the sugar-house. This place, in spite of its great length, is only 4 miles wide, and the owner says he planned the shape of the fields so that this would result; and by planting it in twelve sections, beginning at one end and sowing each section a month or so later than its predecessor, he has secured a constant progression of maturing cane. Month by month his crop ripens, and month by month he cuts it off and takes it to the mill. His estate begins to grind about December or the early part of January, and continues till November. The grinding term here corresponds, approximately, to that observed on the Havemeyer plantations, where the mills really stop grinding only because the supply of material is exhausted. These places sometimes make as much as 50,000,000 lb. of sugar per annum. One of them is equipped with three sets of triple effets, and has a crusher, besides nine rollers. The larger places use about 3,000 tons of cane per day.