TEB AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



397 



Field Mice. 



" Sometimes the country swarms with 

 fiekl mice, and they will eat off all the 

 grain from forage the first night after it 

 has been cut. This is the way to stop 

 that. Turn the butt ends of the forage 

 to the standing forage, or the grass out- 

 side the field ; it is a wrinkle worth 

 knowing." 



The Natives 

 There are probably but few, if any 

 colonists, who know the native better 

 than Mr. Willie Nicholson. " Year by 

 year," he said, " Kafirs are growing worse 

 and worse. Why ? Well, the immediate 

 cause is drink — Kafir beer. Disinclina- 

 tion to work, unreliability, utter laziness, 

 and demoralization in evei-y respect is the 

 result. Even the women and children 

 now drink, a thingthat the men would not 

 have tolerated even twenty years ago. How 

 do I account for the laxity ? The answer 

 is simple— the growing disappearance of 

 proper authority, the authority of the 

 Chief, and that of the father. They can, 

 and now do all that individually pleases 

 them — practically independent of com- 

 munal or family restraint, and the fact 

 that mabele stands the drought much 

 better than the mealie, account a great 



deal for the beer-drinking curse. Instead 

 of extending my cultivation, I am 

 drawing in, and solely on account of 

 this curse. Are the local missionaries 

 doing good ? Yes, a lot of good in the 

 way of getting them to dress properly, 

 and cleanliness ; but beer - drinking, 

 polygamy, and witch - doctors are the 

 great drawbacks to the missionaries' 

 eS:orts. When the converts have 

 made, enough money, they for the most 

 part go in for a second wife, and drop all 

 not ons of becoming industrious, one- 

 wifed citizens. Among all Kafirs men of 

 great intelligence can be found, and I 

 have some who can do building and other 

 work that would nearly pass muster as 

 well as that of a town artisan, or trained 

 white farm hand, but no reliance can be 

 placed in the best of them. The attrac- 

 tions of beer outweigh altogether the fear 

 of disobeying the master's orders. This 

 quickly-growing demoralisation of the 

 natives generally through the Colony, but 

 more observable in some districts than 

 others, is a really bad business." 



And here, upon a subject much exer- 

 cising Mr. Nicholson's mind at the 

 present moment, 1 bring the interview to 

 an end. 



Veterinary Departmental Report for June, 190U 



ABSTRACTS 

 Minister of Agriculture. 



I HAVE the honour to forward here- 

 with the reports for my department 

 for the month of June, the chief item 

 of interest being the occurrence of an 

 outbreak of Rinderpest during the earlier 

 part of the month in the Umvoti Loca- 

 tion. You are already in possesssion of 

 the facts concerning this outbreak and 

 the measures adopted by the Department 

 for its suppression ; happily, these efforts 

 have been attended with success, and the 

 disease has been restricted to the spot at 

 which it was originally discovered. No 

 facts teiiding to clear up the question of 

 the origin of the outbreak have come to 

 light. 



In this connection I understand that 

 the Imperial Authorities intend establish- 

 ing an extensive factory in the Transvaal 



FROM REPORTS. 



for the production of large quantities of 

 Rinderpest serum. This being the case, 

 we shall for the future view with less 

 apprehension the occurrence of outbreaks 

 of Rinderpest, which has thus passed 

 within a few years from a malignant and 

 intractable disease to a malady of second 

 rate importance, controllable as to its 

 virulence and limited in its effects. 



The report of the Veterinary Officer in 

 Klip River County shows the continued 

 existence of extensive outbreaks of 

 disease. About fifty licenses have been 

 issued for the suppression of lungsick- 

 ness in this County alone within the 

 month. The concluding paragraph in 

 Mr. Hutchinson's report explains in a 

 great measure this continued extension 

 of disease, and while Urge numbers of 

 stock continue to enter the Colony, 



