iVou 2, 1920.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 803 



the farm for over ten years, and has given satisfactory results. In good 

 seasons it grows to 2 feet 6 inches in height, and can be cat for hay. The 

 bulk of the seed used in the State comes from New Zealand. 



Trifolium -pra'ense perenne (Chilian Clover). — This is a strain of perennial 

 red clover which is superior to the better known one, being a better drought 

 resister and setting seed more freely. Under some conditions it gives a heavier 

 yield of fodder per acre. 



Poterium f^anguisorha (Sheep's Burnett). — This valuable fodder plant has 

 been grown at the farm for some years past. Records from year to year 

 .show that it grows strongly winter and summer whether the season be wet 

 or dry. Tt has been grown successfully in the coldest positions on the 

 Southern Tableland, as well as in the west of this State. 



Tick Eradication in United States of America. 



The first steps for the eradication of the tick from the southern portion of 

 "United States were taken in 1905, and so well organised and successful has 

 the work been that it is now claimed that the end is almost in sight. Some 

 idea of the immensity of the work is conveyed by Veterinarian E. I. Smith in 

 a recent number of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical 

 Association. In 1905 the whole of six States, and large portions of six 

 others, were quarantined on account of the danger of taking the cattle tick, 

 and tick fever, further north. The first work to bo done was educational, 

 attempts being made to explain what the economic results of the removal of 

 the cattle tick would be, and at the same time all information about the 

 cattle tick was collected. Slowly the methods employed to fight the tick, 

 such as pasture rotation, spraying and dipping, were brought into action, and 

 as the northern portion of the area was cleared and released from quarantine, 

 the people in the cleared area demanded protection from the infected 

 country further south, and began to insist on eradication in those areas also. 

 After the arsenical dip came into use, the work was carried out much more 

 effectively and quickly, until by December, 1918, 63 per cent, of the 

 territory originally quarantined had been released, and Smith asserts that 

 from present indications, within five years the tick will be a matter of 

 history in the United States. 



A few figures will indicate how big was the undertaking : 35,000 dips 

 were in operation, which used in one jear over 900,000 lb. of arsenic ; 

 nearly 3,000 men were directly employed by the Government in the work, 

 and the number of dippings in 1919 ran to over 48,000,000. Inquiries made 

 from the authorities of the various States showed that the value of the 

 cattle had increased as a result of tick eradication from 20 to 100 per cent., 

 and correlated with it there had been an increase in land values of 25 to 

 100 per cent. . 



The work is a standing monument to the capacity of the veterinary staffs 

 of the State and Federal Departments, and is an object lesson to other tick- 

 infested countries as to what may be done by energy and co-operation, 

 Australia is faced with much the same problem, and the time will come 

 when it will be tackled with the same courage and determination as was 

 shown by the Americans. New South Wales may well desire to be the 

 leader in such a movement.— Max Henry, M.R.C.V.S., B.V.Sc. 



