Sir Daniel Hall 127 



per cent., while growing chicks treated with ultra-violet 

 rays are at nine weeks old twice as heavy as others grown 

 in the ordinary manner. Incubators can be worked 

 safely and economically by electricity, and the electric 

 brooder has been proved a great success. 



Another interesting use of electricity in farming is its 

 use for making hay without sunshine. As soon as the 

 grass is cut it is stacked in the rick, with iron cylinders 

 placed in proper positions according to the size of the 

 rick. Air from an electric fan is then forced through the 

 rick for about an hour a day for nine days, and hay of 

 excellent quality is the result. 



Within the past one hundred and fifty years the death- 

 rate among the people of this country has fallen from 

 seventy per thousand to fewer than fourteen per thousand. 

 This is due to the medical scientists who have discovered 

 ways of preventing and curing infectious diseases such 

 as smallpox, typhus, scarlet fever, and diphtheria. In 

 similar fashion the agricultural scientist has cut down the 

 death-rate among our domestic animals. There is now 

 less foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain than in 

 any other country, while such diseases as swine fever 

 and anthrax have been checked. At New Haw, near 

 Weybridge, the Ministry of Agriculture has a research 

 station, the purpose of which is to investigate the diseases 

 of livestock, to find out how they are caused and how 

 they can best be prevented. Diseased animals arrive 

 there from every part of the country, and are kept under 

 observation. Many of these diseases are extremely 

 infectious and can be communicated to human beings. 



Seven scientists are in charge of this station, where all 

 sorts of curious experiments are carried out. For in- 

 stance, some of the ground is deliberately poisoned, yet 

 on this land fat turkeys roam quite happily. The sheds 

 at New Haw are built of corrugated iron with a frame- 

 work of metal. When it is necessary to disinfect a shed 



