A Revieiv of the Year's Work. 207 



and dairymen. The existence of swine fever was first announced to 

 me by Dr. Brown, Inspector of Foods for export, who, after carefid 

 bacteriological examination and experiments in inoculation, was very 

 positive in his opinion that he had discovered swine fever. He, 

 unfortunately, stated at the same time that swine fever had long- 

 existed in the State, and that he had himself seen the disease in 

 Gippsland several years ago. This entirely shook my confidence in 

 his diagnosis, and I at once told him that I could not, without further 

 corroborative evidence, take the responsibility of announcing that 

 swine fever was in the State, and recommending the Honorable the 

 Minister to pass the stringent regulations which I knew were 

 necessaiy to cope with this disease, seeing that Dr. Brown asserted 

 this was the same disease which had been prevalent amongst swine 

 for years. The Stock Branch was informed of Dr. Brown's opinion 

 so that it might be able to obtain corroborative evidence that the 

 disease really did exist in the State. Evidence came later from 

 Mr. Cameron, Veterinary Surgeon to the Board of Health, and from 

 Dr. Bull, of the Melbourne University. Within forty-eight hours of 

 Dr. Bull's report being received, the districts where swine had lately 

 died were quarantined, but as cases were discovered, to exist outside 

 the quarantined areas I recommended the Hon. the Minister to 

 declare the whole of the State, an infected area, and to apply the 

 stringent regulations which are at present in force until the districts 

 could with cei'tainty be declared clean. 



The onus of proving that districts are clean has been thrown on 

 the people themselves, and although this on first sight may seem hard, 

 it will not be so disastrous to the country as if these regulations had 

 not been enforced and the whole of Victoria had become infested, 

 which undoubtedly wovdd have been the case. 



Inspection of Frozen Meat Exports. 



The Inspector of meat for export reports that twice as many 

 carcases of sheep and half as many lambs were exported during the 

 year under review than was the case the previous ^^ear. This increased 

 quantity of sheep is accounted for by the overstocking of Gippsland 

 and the Western district with starving stock fi-om the North and from 

 New South Wales. When keep became scarce in the South these had 

 to be slaughtered, so that the country could carry the remainder 

 without loss. 



It is satisfactory to note that the quality of exported sheep and 

 lambs was better than the previous year. It is estimated that the 

 coming season will show a great increase in the export of mutton and 

 lamb which I can well imderstand, as feed will be so plentiful that all 

 stock will be in excellent condition and fit for export, while last 

 year great numbers were either canned or boiled down. 



Scientific Instruction in Dairying. 



Dr. Cherry, Bacteriologist and Scientific Dairy Expert, has been 

 occupied most of his time in lecturing to farmers and teaching applied 



