Notes. 7 



Wheat Conservation and Rye Growing. 



We do not grow sufficient wheat to supply our population with a 

 wheaten loaf and the shortage has to be imported from other countries. 

 When a prospect of poor harvests and other circumstances caused 

 much anxiety recently as to the means of obtaining supplies to meet 

 the Union's requirements, the question of our bread supply was a 

 topic of general discussion. We publish elsewhere in this issue a 

 short article on the subject in which the suggestion is put forward 

 that any occasion for anxiety regarding our bread supply in the 

 future should l)e removed by engendering a habit for rye bread or 

 for bread containing a proportion of rye. Rye growing is not 

 extensive in the Union but there are large areas very suitable for the 

 crop, and given the demand iheve seems no reason why it 

 should not prove a remunerative undertaking and solve the problem 

 of our bread supply, placing us in an independent position in that 

 matter of supreme importance. 



Stock Dips. 



We draw the attention of importers, manufacturers, dealers, and 

 others concerned to the draft regulations, i)ublislied in this issue, which 

 it is proposed to introduce in connection with the sale of stock dips. 

 It is intended to put these regulations into force as from the 1st April, 

 1921, but in the meantime the Department will be prepared to give 

 consideration to any representations which may be made in regard 

 to any of the terms thereof. The dipping of live stock has become 

 a matter of general necessity, and it is trusted that the opportunity 

 now afforded manufacturers and others of becoming acquainted with 

 the proposed regulations governing the sale of stock dips will be 

 availed of so that the adequate fulfilment of the object of the Act in 

 this connection may be ensured from the start. 



Tsetse Fly and Nagana. 



In connection with the serious losses in live stock suffered by 

 settlei\s and farmers in Zululand through the disease nagana (Trypano- 

 somiasis), it has been decided to widen the scope of the investigation 

 into the matter. We referred in our last issue to the investigations 

 being undertaken by the Division of Entomology into the life-history 

 of the tsetse fly, for which purpose an entomologist is to be stationed 

 in Zululand with the dual object of investigating the local problem 

 and of combining in a general scheme inaugurated by the Imperial 

 Government to investigate the bionomics of the tsetse fly simul- 

 taneously in six widely separated "fly belts" in Africa. But, in 

 addition, the Government has now decided to carry out an investiga- 

 tion into the disease itself, and for this purpose a veterinary research 

 officer will be stationed in the infected area in Zululand. This ofiicer 

 will work in collaboration with the entomologist, studying the relation- 

 ship between the tsetse fly, game, and nagana, and will also carry 

 out therapeutic tests on animals affected with the disease in the hope 

 of saving stock that would otherwise die. Houses, offices, etc., are to 

 be erected, if possible, near the Empangeni Settlement on the Lower 

 Umfolozi Eiver for the accommodation of the investigators. At 

 present the infected area is vi.sited regularly by a Government 

 veterinary officer, who spends a fortnight in each month there. 



