Half-yearly Report of the Stock Branch. 631 



Other Diseases. — No losses are recorded from fluke or liver-rot, 

 but accounts of various other diseases of a non-contagious nature have 

 been received and investigated. From one district a case involving 

 tlie loss of some sixty sheep from vegetable poisoning has been dealt 

 with. On the matter being reported, Inspector Lawler conducted 

 post-mortems on some of the carcases, and was of opinion that poison 

 obtained from some herb in the pasture was the cause of the 

 mortality. Bacteriological examination of specimens submitted to 

 Dr. Bull substantiated this opinion, no bacilli likely to cause fatal 

 results being found by him. Death still continuing in the flock, 

 Mr. Runting, V.S., was instructed to deal with the case, his finding, 

 as the result of three post mortems, was that death was due to 

 vegetable poisoning, and several plants were forwarded to Mr. Lueh- 

 mann, F.L.S., Government Botanist, and none of them, in his opinion, 

 wei'e noted poisons. The sheep were removed to another pasture and 

 the deaths ceased. It is but right to add that as the greater part of 

 the laud was ploughed down before any botanical specimens were 

 collected it is more than probable the plant which caused the trouble 

 was ploughed in, and consequently lost. Water from which the animals 

 drank was analysed by Dr. Howell, but no trace of arsenic, phos- 

 phorus, strychnine, or cyanide could be detected. 



Horse Ailments. 



This animal seems to have had considerable immunity from 

 disease during the past season. In but one instance has a report 

 come to hand of any serious trouble, and then only from the Northern 

 district, where the animals had suffered so much during the previous 

 season from want of feed, and the scanty supply received being of an 

 innutritious nature. The case was investigated by Inspector Cother, as 

 soon as information was received, and he ascribed the trouble to 

 rickets. The affected animals were chiefly yearlings and two-year- 

 olds, whose dams either had died after foaling, or if they lived were weak 

 from the disastrous period alluded to. As soon as the grass matured 

 the trouble ceased. 



Swine. 



Since my last report the swine fever epidemic has been gradually 

 dying out, and there is every hope that if owners take this matter in 

 hand with a determination to stamp the disease out they will even- 

 tually do so. Legislation is powerless unless those interested lend 

 their assistance ; if, on the other hand, they persist in shirking their 

 responsibilities the disease will be ever present. At the present time 

 there is an undoubted subsidence of it. The pig is an important unit 

 in the wealth-producing power of the State, and is deserving of more 

 consideration, both in regard to quarters and food than is generally 

 accorded to him. In the opinion, evidently, of many owners no 

 quarters are too foul or dirty, and no food too putrid or disgusting 

 to offer the animal. In the face of this treatment it is not to be 

 wondered at that the constitution of the animal, through successive 



