October, 1912,] 



315 



AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION AND 

 DEMONSTRATIONS. 



The Editor of the Philippine Agricultural Review deals with this 

 subject in an editorial in the August issue of that journal. He refers to 

 the initiative of the U. S. A. Department of Agriculture which sent out no 

 less than 600 agents for giving instructions, who are reported to have 

 given instruction to 100,000 farmers in thirteen different States. 



The object of agricultural demontration work is to furnish a means of 

 reaching aud influencing the cultivator, particularly the man in the remo- 

 ter parts in whose way very little in the way of agricultural information 

 ever comes. 



Ihe essential feature of the work is that the agent comes in personal 

 contact with the farmer, and that the cultivating hands themselves 

 participate in any demonstration. 



Demonstration work is popular for the reasou that it is practical. The 

 result of proper demonstration work is larger and better crops. 



At the last meeting of the Ceylon Board of Agriculture one of the 

 members present raised a question as to the duties of the Agricultural 

 Instructors on tour, and the Secretary in replying summed up their work 

 by saying that they constituted the connecting links between the Society 

 and the cultivators. The appreciative reference to the work of the 

 Instructors by the retiring Vice-President (Sir Hugh Clifford) went to 

 indicate that the Government valued it. 



RABIES VIRUS. 



The Lancet declares that in spite of the opinion of a small minority, 

 the value of Pasteur's prophylactic treatment for rabies has been estab- 

 lished beyond the possibility of cavil. 



Up to the present the difficulty has been to preserve the activity of 

 the virus for any length of time, aud hence it is necessary for patients to 

 make long journeys to institutions where there are special facilities for 

 keeping fresh supplies. This means delay which if possible should be 

 avoided. 



In a recent paper by Mr. D. L. Harris, published in the Journal of In- 

 fectious Diseases, the author describes a method of preservation which 

 should make it possible to despatch the virus to the homes of the patients 

 to be treated, without danger of its losing its potency. 



The following description of a new preparation of the virus is taken 

 from the Veterinary News of August 10 : — The brain or cord of the rabid 

 animal is ground to a paste with water and, mixed with carbon dioxide 

 " snow," is frozen hard. This is ground to powder with more of the snow 

 and placed in a beaker with a vessel of concentrated sulphuric acid with- 

 in a vacuum jar half immersed in a freezing mixture of ice and salt. After 

 thorough drying in 30 to 40 hours, the powder is sealed up in glass tubes. 

 Injections of 1,000 minims can be borne by a man without ill-effect. 

 Harris claims that at the low temperature no losa of virulence occuns, 



