238 ON THE CORSICAN FIK. 



warmtli of climate, the warmth and aspect of the soil, and 

 indirectly as the depth and moisture of the soil and subsoil. In 

 our humid island climate it is indeed questionalde if the pro- 

 bable income derivable would justify our advocating its intro- 

 duction on an extensive scale. As a means of planting up and 

 improving waste lands, more especially if of a limy nature, its 

 services may frequently be called into requisition, but merely 

 as a stepping-stone to pave the way for the cultivation of some 

 other more profitable tree. The results already attained in 

 Austria, and, although on a smaller scale, in Germany, prove 

 its high value in this respect. But in localities where the same 

 end can be gained by means of the Scotch, or the spruce fir, no 

 weighty reason can be urged for advocating the use of the 

 Corsican fir, wdiich, in all probability, would not in general 

 prove such a profitable speculation as the rearing of our 

 indigenous conifers. 



ON SEPTIC, AXTHEAX OR CARBUXCULAR FEVERS AMOXGST 

 HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, AXD PIGS. 



By George Armatage, The Bank, Hertford. 

 [Premium — Fifteen Soverei(jns.~\ 



Under the above titles we recognise a large class of diseases 

 widely distributed over the United Kingdom, and singularly 

 fatal in character. It is also remarkable, that up to the present 

 moment there appears to be little, if any, mitigation of their pre- 

 valence or severity, and medicine fails to arrest their course 

 except in those animals that are apparently healthy, or are the 

 least affected. 



A study of the causes which are believed to produce anthrax 

 fevers is not without its value tothe stockowner ; for, in relation 

 to epizootic or contagious diseases of foreign origin, they rank next 

 in their destructive character. By them man}' farms have become 

 tenantless, and the occupiers reduced to the verge of ruin, from 

 which alone numbers of districts have changed into corn-growing 

 localities, the breeding and rearing of cattle being altogether 

 relinquished. The subject is likewise valuable in a public j^oint 

 of view, for the questions of meat supply and its cost are of 

 infinite importance to a nation like this, whose inhabitants 

 depend so much upon the flesh of animals as an article of food. 



The causes of anthrax lie in a series of local influences, which, 

 separately or combined, are to be found in almost every district, 

 and to this may be traced the general nature or wide-spread 

 prevalence of the several forms of the affection. We shall pro- 

 ceed to enumerate the various leading causes, and also consider 

 them more or less in detail. 



