ioi8 Summary of Agricultural Experiments, [march, 



of the untreated sheep died, and only one of the treated sheep. Mr. 

 Cave considers that dosing with living cultures of the bacillus just 

 before the period of danger may give sufficient immunity, at any rate 

 to diminish considerably the loss that usually occurs each spring. The 

 method was found to be perfectly safe, as eleven hundred doses were 

 given without causing a single death. 



Diseases of Live Stock (Board of Agric. and Fisheries, Rept. of 

 Proceedings under Diseases of Animals Acts, 1909). — This is a 

 report on investigations that have been carried on during the 

 year 1909 at the Board's Laboratory in connection with the following 

 diseases : — Epizootic Abortion, Contagious Granular Vaginitis and 

 Sterility in Cows, Trichinosis, the " Cruels " in Sheep, Scrapy, Johne's 

 Disease, Poisoning by bracken, Sheep Scab and Swine Erysipelas. 



In connection with Trichinosis some experiments showed that pigs 

 may become infested with Trichinae through the medium of diseased 

 rats. A case of the disease in a pig, which had led to the illness of two 

 people eating the pork, was probably due to infestation through the 

 agency of diseased rats which over-ran the piggery. 



The preventive inoculation of pigs against swine erysipelas has 

 been tried with success. In a piggery where the disease occurred every 

 year, ten pigs, weighing from 105 to 250 lb., were inoculated on July 

 28th, 1908, by the usual method (see Leaflet 227), and ten others of 

 about the same weight that had not been inoculated were put with 

 them. On September nth an outbreak of swine erysipelas occurred 

 amongst the uninoculated pigs and some other pigs on the premises, but 

 none of the inoculated animals became ill. The veterinary surgeon 

 reported later that the owner had resolved to make a practice of 

 inoculating every pig over 100 lb. on his premises. 



It was decided to try the effect of giving serum followed at six 

 days' interval by the dose of living bacterial culture. This plan was 

 found to give good results, and it has since been the method followed. 

 The veterinary surgeon reported on October 23rd, 1909, that between 

 August, 1908, and September 30th, 1909, he had inoculated 724 pigs 

 on these premises, and that only two pigs had shown recognisable 

 symptoms of swine erysipelas, and these two cases were very mild. 

 At the time of report there were 649 pigs on the establishment. 

 The virus of swine erysipelas is believed to be kept up in the soil of 

 an infected piggery for years, and the fact that two pigs became 

 affected with the disease during this observation shows that the virus 

 was still present in this infected piggery, although the vast majority 

 of the inoculated pigs escaped the disease. 



Weeds. 



Charlock Spraying (Univ. Coll, of N. Wales, Bangor, Agric. Dept., 

 Bull. 1, 1909). — Spraying was carried out in 1909 at ten centres with 

 solutions of 15, 20, and 25 lb. of copper sulphate in 50 gallons of water, 

 forming 3, 4, and 5 per cent, solutions. The results confirm those of 

 previous years. The 3 per cent, solution was occasionally effective 

 when the conditions were favourable, whereas the 4 and 5 per cent, 

 solutions practically destroyed all the charlock. 



