necember, 1913 



3i7 



.1 into several small lloeUs hecausc 

 ■I tlu-ir n<rhtin},r iiropeiisitics, and 

 I heir {leiu-ral practii o of worrvinj^ 

 the weaker iiietnhcrs. It often 

 happens that birds of a i)reviotis 

 season, or of the earlier broods of 

 the sani'e season, ha\e to be put 

 ^ack, aceordintr to thei'r sf/.e and 

 i-neral physical condition, amonsj 

 iMinsrer companions ; while parti- 

 cnlarlv ajrsrressix e, s leciallv devel- 

 oped, or quarre>lsome vounir birds 

 have often to be naddocked with 

 tlieir seniors to reduce them to a 

 reasonable state of conduct. 



The feathers, when taken from 

 tlie birds, are rou<rhb- '-1 )ssed bv 

 'jirls. and are tied in bundles 

 weipfhincf from about ^< Ri. to i 

 lb., and are sent direct to New 

 York, to be made into the feathers 

 ' f commerce. 



The esTP^s are hatched in incuba- 

 tors, and the youujr are thus 

 never in the care of their n^i rents. 

 Th'.-v are kent in what is called the 

 " chick-run," and are specially 

 cared for until old enoup-h to be 

 out to " shift " for themselves in 

 •the larone ranch paddocks. 



The ostriches are valued, not 

 from, the point of vii?w of p^eneral 

 appearance, or from thpir prnduc- 

 tivitv in feathers, but from their 

 producino- power of the hio-her 

 rrades of feathers, the inefficient in 

 this reeard beinp- consfauth- weed- 

 ed out. and too often sold to the 

 inexneripnced inau^urators of new 

 ostrich farms. 



Good birds require no mere food 

 or attention than mediocre o'r in- 

 ferior ones, and as there is a tre- 

 mendous difference betv.^een the an- 

 nual returns from the best birds 

 and e''-en the second orades, it is 

 more imnortant to keori onlv the 

 best in this class of farm stock 

 than it is in anv other. The os- 

 trich has onl-ir one u'^" — '^eathpr pro- 

 duction — while PUA' ^th^r class of 

 farmbred stock has alternative 

 USPS to which it mav be nut • and 

 this makes it all im-inrtant from 

 the noint of view of those enter- 

 in p-^ the industrv that the-- shonM 

 rirfdh^ exclude from their earlv 

 Purchases all but the very best 

 birds obtainable. 



The ostrich lives to a o-reat ag-e 

 —far longer than anv other class 

 of farm-bred stock— so, if a eood 

 ?tart is made, and the farm man- 

 aged with reasonable intellig-ence, 

 :he flocks are a nracticallv per- 

 •nanent source of income, and the 

 'earlv increase when the farm is 

 ullv stocked may all be sold.— 

 \prricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 



An Enemy of the House-Fly. 



" Tlie little brown ant has at 

 l ist eoine into its own, savs the 

 " vSydnev Daily Telej;raph." lie has| 

 louf^- l)een looked upon as a curse, 

 but is proviufj to be a ble.ssinjr in 

 disfruisv. The remarkable, freedom 

 from hou.se (lies in Fiji, at this sea- 

 son, is now tmderstood. The j>:reat 

 majorit^• of them are dostroved by 

 the ant while in the ejjjr or larvae 

 stag-e. The discovery is of re- 

 markable interest and" importance 

 to all tropical countries. 



The scarcity of hou.se flies during 

 the present dry spell has been a 

 matter of common remark in Fiji. 

 The open manure pits that are to 

 be found on every side, would ap- 

 pear to offer ideal places for the 

 nies to breed, and still ver^' few 

 flies are to be found, even about 

 the stables. 



Dr. J. F. Hlinsrworth recently, be- 

 g-an investijrations to ascertain 

 what was holding- the flies in 

 check, and if some parasite could 

 be bred, then its great value to 

 mankind would at once be recog- 

 nised. Early inve.stiprations show- 

 ed that there was a remarkable 

 scarcity of maggots, even in the 

 xmprotected manure pits. Ants, 

 being everywhere in abundance,' 

 were not taken into accoimt at 

 first. Soon, however, their great 

 numbers vover the fresh manure led 

 to closer observations and the 

 discovery that they were carrying 

 tha eggs and newly-hatched larvae 

 of the house flies. The egg or 

 young maggot was held bv one end 

 and elevated above the head of the 

 ant while he was makincr his way 

 way over the uneven surface of 

 the manure. It will be easy to 

 understand why this discoverv was 

 not made before when we recognise 

 that the e^rv of the flv is only 

 about i-2.sth of an inch in lenKh, 

 and the newly-hatched maggot 

 only slightly larger. 



Further observations revealeid the 

 fact that the ants destroy larger 

 maga-ots of the house fly in great 

 numbers ; in some cases even when 

 they have reached full size. The 

 rapid heatinar of the manure, or 

 the myriads of mites, which are to 

 be found in the manure irritate the 

 maggots so that they come to the 

 surface from time to time. If they 

 appear among the ants, which are 

 swarming over the surface, they 

 are at once pounced upon, and 

 after a roueh and tumble the su- 

 perior numbers of the ants win 

 the day, and the m.aggot is 

 dragged off to their nest. In one 

 experiment, five full grown mag- 



gots were dropped down among 

 the ants at one time ; within twen- 

 ty minutes the nwiggots were con- 

 quered, and in ten minutes more 

 were being drawn into the nests of 

 ants. The wonderful re])roductivc 

 ability of the house fly, even in 

 cold countries, where" they are 

 killed off bv the wint'er, suggests 

 the unthinkable hordes that would 

 plague us in a warm country like 

 Fiji, rf thev were not held in check 

 Dr. L. O. Howard, in his volumte 

 on the hoiuse Hy, estimates that 

 one female fly that escapes the 

 winterr, laving t2o egtrs in April 



^5'"^'^^ "•'^I'lt is 5,^8,720,000,000 

 adult files l)v loth September if the 

 conditions were perfect for repro- 

 duction. The number is unthink- 

 able, much less can we imagine 

 what the increase would be in a 

 tropical count'rv where breeding 

 goes on the year round The in- 

 dications are that the little brown 

 ants a-,e the principal factors in 

 the destruction of the great ma- 

 jority of house flies in warm coun- 

 tries. 



Every year over 16,000,000 sheep 

 and lambs are slaughtered in Aus- 

 tralia for export, and beef total- 

 ling over 100,000,000 lbs. isi sent 

 out annually for oversea consump- 

 tion. ^ 



Australia's wool clip has in- 

 creased by 33 per cent, during the 

 past five vears. The l-nt^st "tally" 

 shows that there are over 

 9,-^,000,000 sheep in Australia, a 

 larger flock than any other 

 try possesses. 



Australia's 2,000,000 dairy cows 



have produced in one" year 



.Soo,ooo,ooo gallons of milk, from 

 which 193,000,000 lbs. of butter, 



16,000,000 lbs. of cheese, and 



12,000,000 lbs. of condensed milk 

 were made. 



coun- 



ANTITERMITE 



— Absolute Cure — 



— Sure Preventive — 



against 



WHITE ANTS. 



Sole Ag'ents — 



Charles Atkins & Co. 



LIMITED. 

 97, CTJPBTE STT;EET, \Iiri,.\!i)K. 



