490 Journal of Agriculture. [8 August, 1907. 



cattle do well on countr}' that would be too poor and bleak for the short- 

 horn. The selection of the right class of animals for his farm is therefore 

 a matter of the first importance if they are to be kept in sound healthy 

 condition, and it is in collecting and using reliable data on such matters 

 that the best results are to be looked for. It is only a temporary expedient 

 to feed bone meal to cattle affected with rickets. It is the soil that requires 

 the elements of bone. The same reason applies to giving repeated doses 

 of Epsom salts or linseed oil to cattle with impaction caused by feeding on 

 old dry grass. What is wanted here is green feed or ensilage to tide over 

 the dry season. 



In the past veterinary surgeons have profited chiefly by the stock-owners' 

 mistakes and misfortunes, but with the inauguration of a State Veterinary 

 Service, the more important work of prevention will receive attention. To 

 ascertain and thoroughly understand the causes of disease requires the 

 exercise of the highest faculties, and it is only by the acquisition of 

 reliable knowledge that we can hope to give the stock-owners and the State 

 the full benefit of our services. 



I have endeavoured to show in as few words as possible that disease 

 in all its phases is the result of external influences exceeding the limits of 

 endurance and that anything upon which the animal depends such as air, 

 light, food, water, shelter, etc., if absent, deficient or unsuitable may 

 cause disease. There is an old saying " remove the cause and the effects 

 will cease." If we cannot remove the cause from the animal we must 

 remove the animal from the cause or it will be removed for ust 



I have further endeavoured to show that every erfort is being made 

 both publicly and privately to meet the veterinary requirements of stock- 

 owners and to render available the latest teachings of science. Although 

 the number of veterinary surgeons is yet small some good has already been 

 done, but much more remains to be done to reduce the losses from pre- 

 ventible diseases. Many of those dreaded plagues which were formerly 

 looked upon as punitive visitations for human delinquencies have been 

 brought under control, and, as etiological and pathological science ad- 

 vance, others are being constantly added to the list. 



Veterinary science is destined to be of greater service to the stock- 

 owner in the future than ever it has been in the past and he will do well 

 to encourage it in every way ; more particularly that branch specially 

 devoted tO' the prevention of disease so as to make the live stock industry 

 safe and more profitable. 



III.— THE SOIL: CONSIDERED AS THE FARRIER'S CHIEF 



ASSET. 



F . E. Lee, Agricultural Superintendent. 



If I were asked what, in my opinion, was the most pressing need of 

 the Victorian farmer of to-day I should have little hesitation in replying 

 " a better knowledge of the capabilities of the soil he cultivates." This 

 conclusion has been arrived at after a careful study of the farming practice 

 in every part of the State, and is substantially lx>rne out by the chemical 

 and mechanical analyses of a large number of representative types, of soil. 



To put the matter upon an easily understandable basis, we can regard 

 the soil in the light of a banking account of greater or less m.agnitude 

 according to its physical condition, and the amounts of the elements of 

 plant food stored therein by Nature. Good farming means the utilization 

 of this wealth in such a manner that not only is the original capital not 



