Journal of Agriculture. [lo Feb., 1909. 



stock. This year the same method will be extended to agriculture, dairy 

 farming and all other subjects. The lectures will be delivered exclusively 

 in the evening, and in nearly every case these will be illustrated by lantern 

 slides. 



District Secretaries are reminded that applications must be accompanied 

 with the names of at least 30 students who have promised to attend regularly 

 the whole of the ten days' course. The Department provides the staff and 

 pays all expenses connected with the course, with the exception of the rent 

 of the hall and advertising. This expense must be borne by the Society 

 under whose auspices the classes are held. The organizer will visit each 

 centre as soon as practicable after an application has been made, and will 

 select suitable farms for each demonstration. The local Secretary must 

 make all arrangements for the conveyance of students to and from the 

 farms should this be necessary. 



DISEASES OF FARM ANIMALS. 



S. S. Cameron, M .R.C.V .S., Chief Veterinary Officer. 



POISONINGS. 



{Continiitd from fage 5j.) 



PLANT POISONS. 



Homeria Poisoning. 



Cape Tulip. {Homeria lineata or Homeria coLlind). 



Description of Plant. — A bulbous plant from 2 to 3 feet high when 

 fully grown, long parallel-veined leaves springing at intervals from the 

 stem which is sometimes branched. The bulb is spherical and from f in. 

 to i.\ in. in diameter. It has a dark brown fibrous covering arranged in 

 layers, between which are held numerous small bulblets — as many as 500 

 to each bulb. Clusters of these bulblets are also found adherent to the 

 stalk at the nodes from which the leaves spring when the plant is mature. 

 The plant may be propagated from each of these bulblets, so that the 

 extreme rapidity of its spread in certain seasons, and the difficulty of 

 eradication may be easily understood. The flowers are from i to i^ 

 inches across and are held on a flower stalk up to 2 inches long and pro- 

 tected in the bud stage by two bract leaves. Thev have a six-lobed penantn 

 of a brick red or orange colour, yellowish towards the base. The flowers, 

 a number of which are grouped together in the inflorescence, are delicate 

 and fade quickly when plucked. The plant has been declared a noxious 

 weed under the law of some of the Australian States. 



Habitat of Plant. — Introduced into Australia from South Africa, 

 most probably as a desirable acquisition to gardens, from which on account 

 of its prolific capacity for propagation it has been allowed to escape into 

 neighbouring pasture lands. In this connexion, it is to be noted that 

 in the most authentic records of cattle poisoning by this weed the locale 

 of fatalities has been open ground in the vicinity of houses in suburban 

 and urban neighbourhoods — witness the fatalities at Pascoe Vale (Victoria) 

 in 1892, at Mitcham (S.A.) in 1903 and Penrith (N.S.W.) in 1904. 



Homeria is one of those plants to which, it would appear, stock acquire 

 a considerable degree of tolerance when they become accustomed to it. 



