938 Summary of Agricultural Experiments, [feb., 



most frequently on the legs. The fly now and then strikes at the 

 shoulder, rarely at the back and ribs. The eggs are laid on the hairs. 

 Prof. Carpenter considered that his experiments in 1906-7 with muzzled 

 calves showed that the maggot bores through the skin and does not 

 enter the beast's body by the mouth, as is believed to be the case by 

 many observers, but this question is still being investigated. In 1907-8 

 two muzzled calves had no warbles, while 29 unmuzzled and untreated 

 calves showed an average of 7*7 warbles each. In 1908-9 six muzzled 

 calves showed an average of 4*66 each and nine unmuzzled calves 

 4'33 each. 



The dressings usually applied in summer being useless, the destruc- 

 tion of the maggots in winter and spring is recommended. The animals 

 should be examined at least every two or three weeks from the middle 

 of February to the end of June, and as the warbles ripen the maggots 

 should be pressed out and crushed. This practice is more certain, 

 safer, and easier, than the application of sticky or poisonous dressings 

 to the warble holes with the object of killing the maggots. 



In 1907, 2,090 maggots were squeezed out of 194 cattle on the 

 farm where the investigation was being conducted, an average of 

 1077 P er beast. In the spring of 1908, 132 of these cattle were still 

 on the farm, and had been left throughout the summer of 1907 without 

 any kind of dressing or protection against the fly. From these cattle 

 586 maggots were squeezed out, an average of 4*44 per beast, and it 

 is considered that this reduction is due to the destruction in the 

 previous year. In 1909 the proportion seemed to be about the same, 

 and a further reduction is not anticipated until the maggots are 

 destroyed also on neighbouring farms. The cattle grazing on the 

 outskirts of the farm suffered much more than those near the centre 

 of the farm, where it is believed that the flies were nearly exterminated. 



Fruit and Cider. 



Experiments in Cider Making (National Fruit and Cider Institute, 

 Report, 1908). — In the cider-making season of 1907-8 the experimental 

 work in the cider-house consisted mainly of the examination of a 

 number of varieties of apples from the vintage point of view, single- 

 variety ciders being made from each kind as in previous years. Details 

 of the characters and qualities of the individual ciders are given in 

 the report. Probably the most noteworthy result which this work 

 on single-variety ciders has established is that the quality of cider 

 depends primarily upon the kind of apples from which it is made, 

 and that other factors, such as the ferments present, the methods 

 of manufacture, and general management, although important and 

 capable of exercising an appreciable influence upon the nature of the 

 product, nevertheless take a secondary place, and cannot be compared 

 with the fruit factor in their power of determining the quality of the 

 beverage. Unfortunately for the cider-maker, many of the varieties 

 most desirable from a vintage point of view make comparatively poor 

 trees and yield badly in most situations, while on the other hand some 

 quick-growing, vigorous, and heavily cropping trees, yield fruit of 

 inferior vintage quality. 



It is, perhaps, premature at present to assert that the vintage 

 quality of a variety varies inversely with its vigour of growth, but 



