Journal of the Department 

 OF Agriculture. 



Vol.- 11. ; MARCH, 1921. , No. 3. 



Published monthly in English and Afrikaans by the Department of Agriculture, 



Union of South Africa. 



Editor: G. IV. Kterck. 



Subscription : Within the Union and Sonth-West Protectorate, 5s, (otherwise 6Sm) 

 per annum, post free, payable in advance. 



Applications, with subscriptions, to be sent to the Government 

 Printer, Box 378, Pretoria. 



NOTES. 



The Problem of Scab. 



The eradication of scab is a subject which has engaged the atten- 

 tion of farmers and officials for many years past, yet our best efforts 

 iiave not succeeded in ridding the country of a pest which is costing 

 us vast sums of money annually. In Australia the disease was tackled 

 and disposed of in a comparatively short time, while here we still 

 labour under the burden which the baneful presence of scab imposes 

 on us. But public opinion has been intensifying in recent years 

 against the continuance of this great disability and demands lare 

 insistently being made that other means should now be found ;for 

 effectually and finally extirpating the disease, seeing that our present 

 policy has not proved entirely effective. A definite stage in the 

 increasing desire for new methods in dealing with scab was 

 reached at the last meeting of the Agricultural Advisory Board 

 (representative of organized farmers), when' a resolution was passed 

 recommending the adoption of the principle of direct taxation. Very 

 few farmers realize what the present system for the control of scab 

 is costing them eveiy year, because they are paying for it in indirect 

 taxation, but if each sheep farmer had to pay a direct tax until his 

 district was free of scab, the incentive to remove the cause of the tax 

 would be so great that scab, it is held, would speedily be eradicated. 

 The matter is dealt with at length elsewhere in this issue ; it is One 

 of supreme importance to farmers for the policy outlined fore- 

 shadows the adoption of new methods in South Africa, confidently 

 anticipated to have far-reaching, beneficial results. 



The Department wishes to have the benefit of the views of the 

 farming community, and an invitation is now extended to all farmers' 

 associations and other agriculturaU bodies in the Union to give an 

 expression of opinion on the suggested policy for dealing with sc^b. 

 All cominunic^li(;iis sl)( uld be addressed to the Secretary for Agri- 

 culture, Pretoria, 



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