10 Aug., 1917.] Treatment of J'usliires. 451 



" when he fii-st saw tlie district from the south-east side of Mount Eliza, 

 it seemed to be a grazier's paradise." Now, if you look from the same 

 point over the old homestead, it looks like a grazier's " tophet," and 

 the " sins of omission " have brought the scourge of " cripples." Had 

 a better observance of the simple natural laws been followed, nature 

 would have continued to hold out her " horn of plenty." Visiting the 

 homestead in February, 1916, I was intormed by the Misses liaxter 

 thati numbers of their cattle had died, although there was plenty of 

 kangaroo grass in the paddocks. Similar changes have taken place in 

 the Hamilton district, and present conditions are very different from 

 what Major Mitchell waa so delighted with when he called it " Australia 

 Felix." 



About Mornington, in the early days, the hollows among the light- 

 woods were covered with a carpet of grasses, on which the cattle thrived, 

 and they would not stay on the messmate or peppermint country, but 

 during wet periods tliey chose the dry ground among the native oaks. 

 Cattle have a wonderful sense for locating the special substances which 

 they need, and of selecting the food richest in the required elements, and 

 sheep have a decided advantage over cattle in being able to eat the short 

 and sweeter grasses. Thus as the district became fenced in, ajid the stock 

 had much less choice of pasture, the finer and sweeter herbage became 

 eaten out, and bayonet grass, thatch grass, sword grass, and manuka 

 took their places. Such growths indicate a sour, hungry, and toxic 

 (Condition of soil. Bone-chewing, with its attendant risks, became 

 prevalent, and paralysis, with sudden death, often occurred. Of late 

 years, there has been some improvement, due entirely to better manage- 

 ment. Phosphatic fertilizers are being used more freely, and catch crops 

 grown and eaten off with sheep, thus improving the soil in texture as well 

 as in plant food. 



Mr. Richard Grindal, who was trained as a farmer on a Westmore- 

 land farm, secured 100 acres of poor land, in 1872, near Somerville, and 

 though cattle would not thrive on the place at first, he did not lose many, 

 and by dint of labour and sound practice, he converted the little place 

 into good healthy fields. His system was to break up a few acres each 

 year, and grow two crops on it, one of oats and one of 

 potatoes, using 2 cwt. of Maiden Island phosphate of lime 

 per acre, and then sow down in grass, giving it a top dressing of ihe 

 manure of about 2 cwt. per acre. After being in grass for about 

 four years the course was repeated. Very careful attention was given 

 to conserving the farmyard manure, and particularly the urine, which 

 was cauglit in tanks, and carted on to the fields. Lime was carted from 

 Dromana, and little paralysis ever troubled the cattle, and none what- 

 ever since the first few years. The example, however, was not followed 

 by his neighbours, and the butter factory which had been established 

 was forced to close up, as very few cows were left in the district. Mr. 

 Grindal has lived a long and useful life, which is now in its evening, and 

 the record of how he made the blades of grass grow, and the land sweet, 

 is a very forceful lesson to the Gippslanders and the western plainsmen, 

 who. having depleted their soil, are losin"' their cows. 



Adjoining Mr. Grindal's place is "Spring Farm," occupied by 

 Mejsrs. E. Jones and Sons, and the history of this farm is very striking 

 evidence of the wisdom of feeding the pasture lands, as against depend 

 ing on licks, or dosing with minerals when the cattle have become un 

 thrifty. For a number of years, milking cows could not be kept on the 



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