Report of the Ins'pector of Foods for Ed-port. 893 



obtaiuecl wheu it is cak-ulated tliat a single pair of rabbits, if left 

 undisturbed, is capable of augmenting its numbers to upwards of 

 1,000/JOO in two years. In tliis State the rabbit i)est has, without a 

 doubt, been turned into a profitable industry. In Victoria the trade 

 in frozen rabbits, notwithstanding the many risks commercially that 

 surround it is still in a fairly flourishing condition, but there appears 

 to have been a slight slump in prices in London during the year. 

 In the Mitta-Mitta district rabbits have come to be somewliat trou])le- 

 some for the district is too remotely situated to permit of the safe 

 transport of trapped rabbits to Melbourne, so the land owners there 

 have combined together and have decided on the erection of a rabbit 

 preserving works at Corryong. In a little while the nuisance will be 

 abated and the means to laave accomplished the end will have proved 

 remunerative to those whom the enemy threatened. New works for 

 dealing with rabbits are also to be erected at Wodonga, but there 

 rabbits will be frozen as well as preserved. 



Nkw Frekzinu Works. 



Besides the new freezing works to be erected at Wodonga, where 

 rabbits only will be treated, Mr. William Angliss has announced his 

 intention of erecting a large freezing works near the railway line, 

 Footscray, where he Avill treat all kinds of frozen products. He is 

 going to spend £70,000 on the works which will be built on the most 

 up to date scientific plans and he intends installing two 60 tons 

 Linde refrigerating machines. His abattoirs will ])ermit of his killing 

 3,000 sheep a day and the freezing chambers will have a storage 

 capacity of 100,000 carcases of mutton, or 2,220 tons of meat. 



DAiiA(4E TO Stock from Grass Seeds. 



Besides having to contend with droughts, diseases, and the depre- 

 dations of rabbits, graziers have another formidable enemy, engen- 

 dered by propitious seasons, to reckon with. Lambs running on 

 lands where the grasses are long and the seeds spearlike, often sustain 

 considerable iujury through the seeds penetrating their skins. Grass 

 seeds are a terrible scourge to graziers. At seat of entrance of seed 

 there is inflammation ending in pustules. When the pelt is removed 

 many seeds are found sticking in the subcutaneous tissues, and it is 

 observed that the inflammation has extended deeply into these struc- 

 tures. The carcase often ]n-esents an appearance as if the animal had 

 suffered from an eruptive disease. The damage done to lambs by 

 grass seeds is tremendous and so long as the present system of sheep 

 husbandry continues there is not likely to be any means of preventing 

 it. In consequence of the inflammation caused by the seeds being so 

 extensive many carcases are annually condemned. 



As time progresses and pastoral lands become more valuable and 

 when huge tracts of ci:)untry are split up into smaller areas and when 

 water is better conserved and the supply more certain, and when 



