PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 149 
‘‘Subsequently Mr. Luley, of the Vermin Destruction 
Branch, formed eleven pens of mice taken direct from the 
stacks. Very interesting results have occurred from his 
observations. He finds that they breed at a month from 
birth, that nine young ones is a common litter, and that a 
full grown mouse will eat up to 10 grains of wheat per 
diem. peed 
‘A general review of the plague period shows pretty 
conclusively that the set of circumstances which had arisen 
through having such a vast stock of food on hand acceler- 
ated the breeding of the pest. That, in the later stages, 
they did travel, was proved fairly well by the immunity 
for a long time of the new country on the Ouyen to Mur- 
rayville line, which was cut off by the desert at Tempy 
from the infested area. For a long time the mice could be 
seen following the railway line, and it is an opinion that 
they followed the wheat dropped from the trucks. Sub- 
sequently they reached Austral Gypsum, a station in the 
centre of the desert, and eventually to Nunga and Ouyen, 
and along the new line, and also from Pinnaroo in South 
Austraha, to Murrayville, and back to Ouyen. By Octo- 
ber disease had practically killed all mice, and by November 
mice were below normal in the country districts.”’ 
I am indebted to Mr. F. G. England, of Melbourne, who 
was deputed by the Minister of Agriculture of Victoria 
(Hon. I’. W. Hagelthorn) to organise and carry out a cam- 
paign of mouse destruction in that State, for the following 
account of his experiences of the visitation. Mr. England 
first started the systematic destruction of the vermin at 
Crystal Brook, in South Australia, where over 4 tons of 
mice were killed in part of the yard in a week. In North- 
western Victoria his campaign accounted for 600 tons of 
mice (approximately 36 million individuals) in about six 
weeks. After trying various methods of destroying the 
