276 Journal of Agriculture. [8 May, 1907. 



Veterinary Department was almost without a parallel in the history of the 

 British Colonies, and New Zealand was peculiarly fortunate in having a 

 man with Mr. Gilruth's perspicacity and force of character to grasp the 

 situation and initiate the mo'vement. Were the whole burden of such a 

 staff to be borne by the ordinary taxpayer, it is not difficult to see that 

 such a system is apt to break down, and it would be courting failure to 

 attempt to run a similar department unless some means of de- 

 fraying the cost is devised. Whv New Zealand should be export- 

 ing 1,750,000 cwt. of mutton per annum, and the whole Australian 

 Commonwealth only 600,000 cwt., is by no means so^ clear, more especial'.} 

 as the Australian lamb and mutton — to a vei^y large extent grass- fed — are 

 on the London market 6 — 8 weeks earlier, and, moreover, the New Zealand 

 sheep are almost invariably fattened, or at least "topped oft," on such 

 expensive forage crops as rape, kale, turnips, and mustard. Perhaps when 

 the Australian farmers are more alert to the importance of the sheep- 

 raising industry the freezing trade will expand as it has done across the 

 water, and therein mav arise an emphatic demand for the appointment of a 

 numerically strong staff of veterinary officers. 



It is interesting to record the fact that the New Zealand Government 

 has so far recognised the necessity of keeping in close touch with scientific 

 progress in Europe as to grant, at intervals, to the chief of the divi-sion 

 sufficient leave of absence to enable him to visit the chief British and Con- 

 tinental laboratories, and to keep in personal contact with the leading 

 savants of the Old World. 



THE PROCLAIMED PLAXTS OF VICTOIUA. 



{Coutiiiucd from page -30.) 



Alfred J. Ewari . D.Sc., Ph.D.. F.L.S., Government Botanist ; and 

 J. R. Tovey, Herbarium Assistant. 



The Furze. 

 Ulex EuropcEus, Linnc. {Leguminosce.) 



A shrub of 2 to 3 feet, or even twice that height when old and luxu- 

 riant, more or less hairy, especially on the main branches ; the numer- 

 ous short, intricate, small branches all ending in a stout thorn. Lower 

 leaves occasionally lance-shaped, but the greater number reduced tn thorns, 

 up to a centimetre in length or more. Flowers fairly large, solitarx , in the 

 axils of the leaves on the preceding year's shoots, forming showy racemes. 

 intermixed with thorns at the end of the branches Calvx vellow like the 

 petals and but little shorter, clothed with brownish hairs, with a small, 

 broad bract a millimetre or two in length on each side at the Ijase, besides 

 a similar bract under the short pedicel. Petals narrow. 



An introduction from Europe. In Western France, its 1 ranches are 

 crushed for fodder, and when chopped are used as kindling wood. Cows 

 will browse on the young shoots. This perennial hedge-plant, owing to its 

 strong growth, is hard to eradicate, especially on sandy soil, but is easily 

 killed on land that can be flooded. If kept closely trimmed it flowers but 

 little, does not spread, and forms a good hedge plant. A neglected hedge, 

 however, soon becomes a permanent danger. 



Proclaimed under the Thistle Act for various districts, com})rising the 

 greater part of the State. 



