i 
stability of the stacks was endangered. The grain poured 
down, and the roofs collapsed, letting in rain. Thousands 
138 J. B. CLELAND. 
of tons of wheat were lost, partly through consumption by 
the mice, partly through damage by rain, partly through 
being spoilt by mouse droppings and tramped into the mud. 
The mice did not migrate in the ordinary sense, but follow- 
ed trails of food to new districts, or were transported un- 
wittingly by man to fresh areas. Ordinary means of trap- 
ping and poisoning failed, but by suitable fencing, clean 
stacks could be efficiently protected, and rebagged wheat 
stored in these. The transport of grain to uninfested dis- 
tricts was a means of protection of value. With such 
measures, and the onset of cold weather, the damage done 
by the pest was diminished. Disease amongst them, prob- 
ably subeutaneous abscesses and the ringworm favus, is 
thought to have played some part in decreasing their num- 
bers, but I doubt whether such diminution was appreciable. 
Ringworms and superficial sores occurred to some extent 
in persons handling the spoilt wheat, and the former was 
unduly prevalent in other inhabitants of the affected areas. 
Official Information—For the purpose of obtaining 
official information as to certain aspects of the mouse visi- 
tation, I personally asked Mr. EH. Harris, the officer in 
charge of the Government Wheat Operations in New South 
Wales, for information on the subject, and wrote to the 
various Departments in the other Commonwealth States 
asking for data in connection with the undermentioned 
eleven points. 
As regards Queensland, I received a reply from the 
Under-Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Stock, 
stating that it was regretted that the information asked for 
could not be supplied, the reason being that there was no 
official enquiry made at the time of the visitation, and 
consequently no statistics were collected by the Depart- 
ment. 
