is not good enough for fattening), on which calves both home-bred and purchased, are reared, but not fattened; 3) fattening farms, where purchased store cattle are fattened. While this general division is to a great extent necessitated by natural conditions, it is possible in the writer's opinion that the specialisation is in many cases unnecessary or carried too far. In order to attain success in rearing, it is essential to obtain the right kind of calf; whereas at the present time, even in the dairying districts of Cheshire and the North of England, where a good class of Shorthorn cow predominates, many calves of a decidedly poor type are bred owing to the use of inferior bulls. Generally, such calves have to be sold in large numbers every spring for immediate slaughter. On the other hand, animals known to be well-bred are always easily sold, and as a rule the demand for such is much greater than the supply. Another obstacle is the fact that the farms adapted for the rearing of calves are very often at considerable distances from the dairying districts. The writer gives the following suggestions as a help to the solution of the complicated problem: 1. Dairy farmers keeping good general purpose cows, such as Shorthorns, Lincoln Reds, Red Polls and South Devons, could in most cases rely on a steady demand at satisfactory prices for their calves if they used better bulls than are employed in many cases at present. Even where heifer calves are to be kept, usually only a few from the best cows are reared; a bull of the beef type could be used for the others. Some system of co-operation could be devised whereby each man would have the use of two or more bulls. It would be advisable to select for the two purposes bulls of which the progeny would be easily distinguished, e. g., in a Shorthorn herd an Aberdeen Angus bull, of which the calves would practically all be black and polled, might be selected to produce calves entirely for sale. 2. The cold and discomfort of a long journey, along with the sudden and often violent change of food, tends to induce scour (ordinary scour) and other troubles, and such calves often receive a serious check from which they recover very slowly, if at all. The difficulty would be greatly lessened, if the calves were kept for a couple of weeks before being sent away. Still more could be done by proper treatment of the calves when they reach their destination. One of the best methods adopted by successful rearers is to give a small dose of castor oil and some stimulant in a little warm milk, as soon as the calf arrives, and after an hour or so to give a small meal of milk. For the first few days the calf should receive very small quantities of food at a time, and should be fed at least four times a day. If the least sign of scour appears, a dose of castor oil should be administered at once, the quantity of food reduced by one-half, and a little chalk given. (It is a good plan to leave a lump of chalk in the calf house, so that the calves can lick it as they like). The plan of selling young calves in markets and auctions must be strongly deprecated. Rearers might combine and after inspection of the cows and arranging terms and safeguards, agree to take the whole of the available calves from a dairy farmer or from a group of dairy farmers, in which case the rearers could have a voice in the selection of a bull. "This is a problem well worthy of the attention of farmers' clubs and associations, and if any such feel disposed to go into the question, the Board would be pleased to advise as to what other societies it might be desirable to approach, and to do all they can to facilitate attempts to get into direct. communication. " 50 - The Exportation of Zebus from Madagascar. REUZE, ANDRÉ. L'exportation des Zébus de Madagascar. L'Agriculture Nouvelle, Year 22, No 1124, pp. 1051-1053. Paris, November 2, 1912. Madagascar possesses large herds of native Zebus: the official statistics return those included in the census at 4 500 000 head. The legs of these animals are very slender and their coat variable. They have very long lyrate horns, wide at the base and with slightly accentuated rings. Since the end of 1909, it has been attempted to export zebus for the French market, and in spite of the difficulties incurred at first, the scheme was continued, with the result that the last statistics give the number of these animals exported in 1911 at 16 253, worth about £45 200. At the same time, the export was begun in the form of canned or cold stored meat. A factory was established at Boanamary, near Majunga, and has been working for nearly a year with every prospect of success. The Antogobato factory near Diego Suarez, which was opened first, slaughtered in one season alone, from April to October 1911, 10 000 oxen. The exportation of this meat: 483 tons in 1910, and over 913 tons in 1911, at a value of about £63 560, together with the figures given for the exportation of live oxen, makes for the first year a trade amounting to some £110 000, April and May are the best months for dispatching live zebus, for at this date the animals have had time to recover from the winter, and the voyage through the Red Sea is less trying, while the cattle reach France when the cold is over. The following figures are the results of data furnished by well-informed colonists and the Butchers' Syndicate. They show the probable profit to be derived from this trade. A live zebu of 990 lbs., with a dead weight of 440 lbs., is worth, on the spot, £2 IIS. 6d; to this must be added: POULTRY The cost price at Marseilles will be £2 11s. 6d. plus £5 16s. 7d., = £8 8s. Id. The hide pays for the slaughtering. At 5. 84d. per lb. of meat, this zebu will fetch 440X5. 84d. on £10 14s. 1 1⁄2d., i. e. £2 6s. o 1⁄2d. net profit per head, from which must be deducted losses on route, thus leaving about £2. The present cargoes consist of 1200 head, so that the net profit of each voyage is about £2400 with a capital engaged of about £10 000. 51- Researches on Diphtheria in Fowls and its Connection with Diphtheria in Pigeons and with Fowl-pox. 1. BORDET, J. La diphtérie des pigeons. 2. BETEGH, L. v. Ueber die Beziehungen zwischen Geflügeldiphterie und Geflügelpocken. Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde und Injektionskrankheiten, I Abteilung Originale. Vol. 67, Part 1-2, pp. 41-43; 43-50+ 2 pl. Jena, November 9, 1912. I. Dr. Bordet, Director of the Brussels Pasteur Institute, has already described, in collaboration with Fally, in 1907 (Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences Médicales et naturelles de Bruxelles, Juin 1907) and in 1910 (Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, Juillet 1910) the micro-organism causing diphtheria in fowls, which is distinguished for its extreme smallness, being perhaps the smallest that has ever been cultivated. He discovered that the inoculation of pure cultures in fowls, by means of scratchng the nictitating membrane, causes the typical disease, and that the micro-organism is found pure in the chronic lesion consequent upon this inoculation. The etiology of this disease being explained - according to the writer it was desirable to ascertain whether diphtheria in pigeons was due to a similar organism. Researches on pigeon diphtheria present special difficulties because the disease is rarely severe in adult birds, and it is generally limited to small whitish patches which appear most frequently in the cavity of the mouth, or sometimes in the folds of the conjunctiva, and it cannot always be communicated to other subjects by means of inoculation of the natural virus. This is therefore only very slightly virulent; consequently its cultures are still less so. In fact the writer did not succeed in causing the disease in pigeons by scratching the culture in. Nevertheless, considering that the micro-organism is found pure in great numbers in the lesions; that it is absolutely identical to that of fowl diphtheria; that on the other hand inoculations of pure cultures of the virus from fowls have caused the typical disease (in the writer's previous experiments) and that this virus has been found pure in the lesions thus caused; lastly that both fowl and pigeon diphtheria present symptoms closely resembling each other, the writer considers it evident that the virus recently obtained is the agent of diphtheria in pigeons. The paper includes a description of the micro-organism in the lesions and on the artificial culture media and of the methods of culture. 2. Fowl-pox has been believed by some to be connected with human smallpox, though it is not yet known if this belief is justified or not. The writer however has succeeded in causing the phenomena of pox in fowls by means of the virus of sheep-pox: a connection between the pox of fowls and that of mammalians may thus be supposed to exist. The writer summarises the opinions on this subject of several authorities and then describes his etiological investigations and physiological observations, according to which be confirms the fact that the virus of fowl-pox can give rise in fowls either to this disease or to diphtheria while the diphtheria virus can also produce fowl-pox. He concludes that: 1. The diseases known under the names of fowl diphtheria and of fowl-pox are etiologically identical. 2. The pathogenic agents are the corpuscles described by Borrel, Strongyloplasma avium Borrel, which may be included among the pro tozoa. The paper is accompanied by an appendix of the bibliography consisting of 23 works. 52 - Egg-Laying Competitions at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College. THOMPSON, D. S. in Department of Agriculture New South Wales, Farmers' Bulletin, No. 57, 15 pp. 1912. These competitions took place for ten years and have brought to light many interesting facts. In the tenth series, the laying hens were supplied with animal food in conjunction with their ordinary rations; this diet was of some advantage in inducing egg-laying, but it is a question whether the increase in the number of eggs obtained covered the extra expenses involved. In the autumn, the pullets which received no meat laid as well as those which were given this addition to their rations; but in the spring and summer, the meat-fed fowls proved the best layers. In appearance and bodily condition there was no appreciable difference between the two lots of pullets; but it is noteworthy, however, that while there were no broodies among the White Leghorns, which received no meat, there were five out of thirty in the corresponding meat-fed pens. Broodies were less prevalent than in previons competition, showing that greater egg-productive development lessens the tendency to broodiness. The whole series has been carried out on essentially practical lines. The morning meal consisted of bran and pollard mash; twice a week, the mash was scalded with liver soup and the minced liver and soup mixed with the bran and pollard. This is not only valuable for its protein content, but a tonic and appetiser. In the afternoon, grain was fed, wheat predominating, but maize was fed more frequently in cold weather; it was also given once a week as a change. Green food was fed in the shape of rape and lucerne. In the case of good layers of Leghorn breed, it may be advantageous to keep them into the third year, but any way they should be sold on the eve of moulting in their third season. The third year Leghorn hens showed a wonderful record namely a total of 1013 eggs and this breed proved itself to be the best for egg production. The average number of eggs laid annually by one hen rose from 130 at the commencement of the experiments to 184 at the close of the ten years. During the three laying periods of a threeyear-old fowl, the number of eggs produced gradually decreases. Meat feeding was tried in the case of the ducks and with good results. The health of the birds was extremely good, showing a lower mortality than the average of the ten tests; the general average being 6 per cent. No cases of infectious or contagious disease occurred. - Stocking Trout Streams. HERRMANN, W. Zur Besetzung der Forellenbäche. Allgemeine Fischereizeitung, Year Mistakes are very often made in the choice of material for stocking trout streams, other Salmonidae being frequently mixed with the trout. In order to pay well, trout-streams should be devoted to the breeding of this latter species alone, with the addition where possible of crayfish. The type of the individual stream should be taken into consideration in the selection of the trout to be introduced. From this standpoint, the writer distinguishes three kinds of trout streams: 1. The typical trout stream with crystal-clear water flowing rapidly over its pebbly bed and with scarcely any plants growing in it. Here the brown-trout (Salmo fario L.) thrives and it would be a great mistake to introduce Salmo salvelinus L. or Trutta iridea, which would soon lose their rapidity of growth. 2. Streams with gently flowing water, soft bottoms and with some reeds growing at their edges. As the food is here more varied, quickgrowing brook-trout may be put in, such as the Moosach-trout, which as experiment has proved, will not thrive in the first type of stream. 3. The third group includes all streams with a moderate fall and thick growth of submerged water-plants. The excess of food present is due to the unusual number of small animal organisms, the very plentiful supply of insects which fall into the water, and to the small fish, which fall a prey to the larger trout. Such streams are full of |