BY EDWARD PALMER. 23 
But inoculating all calves at the time of branding without fail, 
will remove the germs of disease gradually out of every herd; as 
the older cattle die out, they will be replaced by healthy young 
stock. It is impossible under present circumstances, to inoculate 
calves at the time of branding, on account of the impossibility of 
procuring the virus ; branding goes on all the year round, and it 
would be actually impossible to secure a sufficient quantity of 
good virus to last long enough to inoculate each lot as they were 
brought in. That science will solve the difficulty is almost beyond 
a doubt ; and it will remain for cattle owners to apply it practically, 
and they are not likely to neglect such a remedy when it will 
be the means of saving themselves and the colony, many 
thousands of pounds annually. The operation would not entail 
much extra trouble, not much more than earmarking does ; and 
it would have the recommendation that the herd would not need 
to be mustered or knocked about through yards. 
That this matter is well worth consideration, is shown by the 
tremendous loss that occurs yearly in all stock that are moved, 
whether it is fat stock to market, stores for fattening, or mixed 
cattle for stocking country. It would be a difficult calculation to 
make, to estimate how much these colonies have lost through 
pleuro since the landing of that unluckly cow in Victoria in 1858, 
which is said to have first introduced the disease into Australia. 
The spread of this scourage must have been rapid in the extreme, 
for four years after that, the plague of pleuro was rampart in the 
far north of Queensland, as far as ever settlement had then 
extended. Since then it has made its abiding home in the herds 
of Queensland, and although the losses among some herds are not 
great, the disease has latent force enough to cause heavy losses 
among all cattle travelled, and that is among the best and 
strongest of the herd, the young bullocks and fats sent to market. 
The losses in England for the six years ending 1860, amounted 
to £12,000,000, or the at the rate of £2,000,000 annually. 
When the disease first made its appearance in Queensland about 
1861 or 1862, there were many large herds lost as many as 50 
per cent. of their number ; since which the attacks have not been 
so virulent. But an estimate can be made of the annual loss from 
this lung plague by taking an a per centage of all the cattle in the 
colony ; if we say four per cent. on the whole number in the 
colony, it would not be overstating the case, that is to include all 
travelling cattle, in which the losses are greatest. If we take the 
number at 4,000,000 cattle, 4 per cent., would show an annual 
loss of 160,000 head, valued at say £3 a head, means an annual 
