Notes. 7 



Rodents and Plague : A Menace to Agriculture. 



Farmers, and especially those in the districts of the Orange Free 

 State where plague now prevails, are warned of the serious conse- 

 quences to their farming operations that may result from a spread of 

 the disease. In such event it may be necessary to hold up farm 

 produce, and prevent the export of mealies, etc., from the infected 

 areas. The disease is primarily a rat disease, and infection is carried 

 from rat to man by fleas. There is. serious danger of spread of the 

 disease by sick and dead rats in broken maize bags, forage, etc., and 

 the Department of Public Health has been carrying on an active 

 campaign against rodents, finding plague-infected rats on many 

 farms and railway stations in the Bothaville, Kroonstad, Hoopstad, 

 and Winburg Districts. It is very important therefore that farmers 

 should co-operate with the Public Health Department in their efforts 

 to prevent the spread of the disease, for depending on the success 

 of the campaign is the question of prohibiting the movement of 

 agricultural produce out of the infected districts. Not only as 

 carriers of plague, but as destroyers of produce, rats and mice are a 

 serious menace, and farmers throughout the country should keep their 

 farms clear of them. 



For the information of farmers in the plague area, attention is 

 drawn to the following regulation, a duty which should conscienti- 

 ously be carried out : — 



" Fjvery person becoming aware of any sickness or mortality 

 in rats, mice, cats, dogs, or other animals susceptible to plague, 

 not due to poison or other obvious cause, shall forthwith report the 

 facts to the local authority and to the magistrate or the plague 

 medical officer or any justice of the peace or any police officer. The 

 carcass of any such animal shall, before being moved or touched, be 

 saturated with paraffin, and shall thereafter be kept for examina- 

 tion." 



A useful pamphlet entitled "Prevention and Destruction of 

 Eats and Mice " (TSTo. 238, Health) is obtainable on application to 

 the Department of Public Health, Pretoria, and mention may also 

 be made of Bulletin No. 4, 1921, "The Destruction of Rodents by 

 Use of Poisons" (obtainable from this Office; price, 3d. prepaid). 

 Both furnish information that will be found invaluable by the farmer 

 in clearing his farm of a pest, the danger of which, unfortunately, 

 is not vet sufficiently realized. 



Wart Disease of Potatoes, 



What is considered the most destructive pest of potatoes — wart 

 disease — has been discovered in the Impendhle Division of Natal, 

 and following the article on the subject that appeared in the May, 

 1922, issue of the Journal, attention is directed to Proclamation 

 No. 90, 1922, which declares the farms " Castle Howard " and 

 " Killaloe," in the Impendhle Division, as restricted areas from 

 which no potato tubers or any parts of potato plants may be 

 removed without special permission, and to the regulations published 

 under Government Notice No. 912 of 1922, which apply to the 

 above-restricted areas. Both are published in the Gazette of the 

 9th June, 1922. 



