Journal of Agriculture. [8 August, 1907. 



agricultural colleges who instructs the students how to deal with common 

 ailments and on the principles that should guide them in the selection^ 

 care and breeding of animals. Amongst the lecturers to agricultural classes, 

 held at the different centres throughout the State there is also a veterinary 

 surgeon who gives both theoretical and practical instruction to young 

 farmers. Valuable information is also diffused through the columns of 

 the Journal of Agriculture, so that those who desire it need not now lack 

 information on matters relating to the health and soundness of their stock. 



Horse-Shoeing. 

 Horse-shoeing is also an important matter to all who have to use horses, 

 and requires more attention than it has hitherto received. Owing to the 

 discontinuance of apprenticeships this trade like many others has suffered 

 and unless measures are adopted to raise the efficiency of those engaged 

 in it there is some risk of its becoming a lost art. The injurious effects- 

 of bad shoeing are not seen to- the same extent in the country as in the 

 larger centres of population although they exist, and it behoves every one 

 who has anything to do with horses or has any love for them to use his. 

 influence in bringing about a more satisfactory state of affairs. This will 

 Ije better understood when it is realized that one-third of the useful life- 

 of working horses is sacrificed to bad shoeing-. A Farriers' Bill has been' 

 drafted which, it is to be hoped, will be brought before Parliament at an 

 early date. This Bill provides for the proper^ teaching and examination of 

 those entering the trade. If it is necessary to exam.ine a plumber or 

 engine-driver before granting him a licence, surelv a man who has to deal 

 with a living sensitive animal should prove himself competent before being^ 

 allowed to practise his trade. 



What Veterinary Science Can Xor Do. 

 Having said so much about what the veterinary profession can do and 

 is doing for the stock-owners, I shall now mention a few things that 

 it cannot do. It should be understood that when animals lose 

 their freedom as thev do when brought into a state of domestication, 

 Darwin's law of survival of the fittest ceases to operate. In the 

 natural or wild state the weak, diseased or incompetent fail in the 

 struggle for existence and die, leaving O'nlv the strongest and mosit 

 robust to perpetuate their species. Under domestication man takes the 

 law into his own hands and only allows those to breed which he thinks 

 fit'test — that is — fittest for his own purpose. The result is that verv often 

 the least robust are carefullv fostered and reared to propagate others still 

 less fitted for the struggle for existence, and such animals are necessarily 

 predisposed to disease. To enjoy health and vigour animals must be 

 adapted to their surroundings. Any failure in this respect leads to disease. 

 Much can be and is being done in the Avav of adjusting the surroundings 

 to suit the altered character of the animals such as providing shelter, 

 clothing, growing forage crops, storing ensilage, making hav, etc. But 

 unless the balance between adaptation and en\'ironment is complete we 

 may always expect trouble. 



Why Animals Suffer from Disease. 

 Herbert Spencer says that life is a continuous adaptation of the internal 

 to the external relations, and it is this great principle we must all study 

 if we Avish to reduce disease to a minimum. Endeavouring to keep 

 animals ali\-e with medicine is only a temporary expedient though some- 

 times a verv necessary one. Every farmer knows that some districts are 



