ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. . 29 
wheat, and his original investigations have been published in the 
Agricultural Gazette issued by the department. In order to 
investigate the life-history of worms in sheep, he has commenced 
work in a small laboratory fitted up near Moss Vale by the Stock 
Department. His scheme of operation consists in examining the 
fodder plants for their microscopic fauna, and comparing the same 
with the larval stages of worms parasitical in sheep, an entirely 
new line of work, from which interesting and important results 
have already been obtained which will be published in due time. 
Dr. Cobb has determined that the losses in crops throughout New 
South Wales due to plant diseases, average annually no less than. 
a quarter of a million sterling, from which can be gathered the 
value of the work being undertaken by this branch of the depart- 
ment. 
The chemist of the department, Mr. F. B. Guthrie, has been 
engaged upon a systematic examination of many of the typical 
soils of the Colony, of which he has done seventy. He has made 
a complete examination of all the fertilisers used in New South 
Wales, with a view to having them valued for commercial purposes. 
on a fixed basis. He has examined a large number of milks in 
order to arrive at a fair standard for adoption by the different 
factories and dairymen’s associations throughout the Colony. He 
has determined the feeding value of a number of samples of ensilage 
and other foods used for cattle, also the gluten percentage of a 
number of wheats noted for their rust-resistant qualities, but not 
appreciated by the millers. He has also conducted a series of 
original investigations upon the Darling Pea, Swainsonagalegifolia, 
with a view to determining, if possible, the causes of the evil effects 
produced in sheep, horses, and cattle, which have taken to this 
food and have become indigo eaters, as they are called. 
The botanist of the department, Mr. F. Turner, has published 
an illustrated work on the “ Forage Plants of Australia,” the first 
Australian work dealing with that important subject, and in the 
columns of the Agricultural Gazette, descriptions and illustrations 
of thirty-seven. of the principal Australian grasses. A series of 
