450 Jonnud of AyricuU utf, Victoria. [10 Aug., 1917. 



Siguificauce of Phosphorus," and she showed the remarkably low percen- 

 tage of the important minerals in Victorian grasses, such as tussocky 

 and kangaroo grasses, making it hard to understand how cattle could live 

 on such fodders alone. The Depaiitnieut of Agriculture of New South 

 Wales, in a Science Biilhiin, issued in 1914, gives the results of consider- 

 able research work regarding the soils and grasses of the areas where 

 bone-chewing is prevalent, and where " .stiffness," and eventually 

 death, often results among the milking cows and young growing 

 cattle, the herbage there being remarkably deficient of phosphoric acid, 

 lime, and potash. In New Zealand the administration of a syrup of 

 iron and phosphorus to cows sick with "bush sickness" gave good 

 results, and a lick made up of lime, salt, and perchloride 

 of iron was found to be very beneficial {vide New Zealand 

 Journal of Agriculture, November, 1915). The use of lime (20), salt 

 (200), sulphate of iron (10), sulphur (5), and gentian (2) as a lick has 

 a marked good effect on the health of sheep in the Balmoral district. 

 Bone-meal and other forms of phosphate of lime, with other minerals, 

 are used in various parts of Victoria, with varying degrees of success, 

 when a cow is troubled with " stiffness" or " rickets." In the different 

 forms of paralysis and impaction, called bv the various names of " Win- 

 ton disease," " Yambuk disease," cripples, &c., in Victoria, "Midland 

 disease " in Tasmania, there is the one constant factor of low content of 

 phosphoric acid in the herbage, and in such case the plant is ill 

 nourished, aud probably deficient in the vitamines. It is therefore 

 imperative to feed the pasture grasses in order to properly feed and 

 nourish our stock, and, moreover, the absence of lime and potash renders 

 the herbage more liable to the attacks of moulds, fungi, &c., which are 

 harmful to the cattle. 



Most stockmen believe that impaction is due to tough, dry, indiges- 

 tible fodder, in a mechanical sense, and some know that the quality 

 of the water which the cattle have to drink may be directly or indirectly 

 the cause, but very few realize that, even though the animal is in good 

 condition, it may suffer from disordered nerves due to mal-nutrition, 

 through a deficiency in the soil. 



Professor Osborne, writing in the Scientific Australian in December, 

 1915, says: — 



Tlie animal body has no capacity for organic synthesis ; all the 

 chemical principles required have to be derived from the vegetable king- 

 dom. Animals have no means of building up complicated chemical com- 

 pounds. Every organic radicle necessary has to be obtained from the 

 vegetable food." 



I pioneered in Gippeland for a number of years, aud was well aware 

 that there was a shortage of phosphate of lime in that part of Victoria, 

 and the potash is probably deficient at the surface, or locked up, and 

 the eating of the bracken (it being high in potash) is very likely asso- 

 ciated with this fact'. The bone-chewing habit is also associated with 

 this lack of minerals in the herbage. 



Experience in connexion with the mortality of cows on several hold- 

 ings on the Mornington Peninsula is instructive, and helpful toward? 

 a clearer understanding of the benefits of attending to the pastures. 



To an old pioneer of the peninsular, I am indebted for first-hand in- 

 formation. Mr. Felix Foster came to Brighton in 1844. Later on. he 

 took up land near Somerville, alongside Captain Baxter, who had settled 

 there in 1840. Mr. Foster says that Captain Baxter often remarked that 



