358 Report of Sheep-Dipping Committee, [sept., 



scription list of about ^650. Bearing this in mind, it is wonderful 

 that the Council should have been able to carry out these important 

 schemes without outside assistance, and with no hope whatever 

 of making any direct profit from them, but rather the certainty 

 of incurring a very considerable expenditure of money. The 

 system would appear to be one that might with advantage be 

 followed by other agricultural societies. 



The Departmental Committee appointed in April, 1903, by the 



Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to investigate experimentally, 



and to enquire into certain questions con- 



Report of nected with the dipping- and treatment of 

 Sheep-Dipping- , , , , . T _ 



Committee. sheep, have now presented their Report. 



The Committee examined witnesses repre- 

 sentative of the sheep-farming industry in this and other 

 countries, and by permission of the Agricultural Department of 

 the University College of North Wales they conducted three 

 sets of experiments at Bangor with a large number of sheep- 

 dips of representative types. By the courtesy of the officials of 

 the Bradford Conditioning House an opportunity was afforded 

 of testing the effect of these dips upon the condition, colour, and 

 fibre of the wool. A summary of these experiments will be found 

 in another part of this Journal (p. 361). The Committee do not 

 recommend any special dip, as the evidence and the experiments 

 both lead to the conclusion that the best representative dips of 

 the types commonly used in the country are effective against the 

 sheep-scab acari {Psoroptes communis), and, to a great extent, 

 against keds (Melophagus ovinus)^ and are also advantageous for 

 the general health of sheep. 



The experiments conducted at Madryn showed that a single 

 dipping, when carefully carried out, is sufficient to cure scab ; 

 and the Committee do not make any recommendation as to the 

 interval between a first and second dipping, but where, as an 

 additional safeguard, a second dipping is resorted to, they think 

 that the evidence confirms the view previously held that it should 

 take place between ten and fourteen days after the first dipping. 



