1 Jury, 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 87 
I will deal with the question of inoculation under five heads— 
A.—A few well-authenticated instances in my own experience of the 
efficacy of inoculation as a prophylactic. 
B.—The average mortality resulting from the inoculation of young cattle 
up to 2 years of age. 
C.—The average mortality from the operation in aged cattle—cows only. 
D.—The urgent necessity for careful treatment, or, in other words, the 
absolute necessity of leaving stock undisturbed for at least a month 
after inoculation. 
E.— Mortality amongst pregnant cows, or their inclination to abort from 
the effects of the operation. ’ i 
HISTORY OF THE CATTLE TICK ON GIN GIN. 
The first ticks noticed on any of the Gin Gin herd was on the 1st J une, 
1898. They were found on the milking cows, and were about a fortnight old. 
On the 2nd June a stud heifer in good order and i ealf with her first calf 
died. I had the cow opened, and found marked symptoms of Texas fever. The 
bladder was full of redwater; the gall granulated, very much resembling thick 
ea-soup ; and the pee was quite rotten. I sent some blood down t0 Mr. 
Patidl who reported, under date 20th June, that he had found the micro- 
organisms of tick fever. I at once put the stud cattle through the yards, and 
found ticks on all of them. 
The first cattle moculated were operated upon on 17th May, 1898, when to 
the best of my belief there were no ticks on the run. _All these cattle showed 
- signs of fever about 14 days after inoculation. None died, and they are all 
alive to-day and in healthy condition, although ticks are plentiful on them. 
A 
On the 28rd and 24th May, 1898, 216 head of mixed cattle were operated 
upon, from newly branded calves of a month old up to very old cows, a few of 
which, by the number on their hide, were 15 years old, these cattle having been 
tailed for 3 weeks before being operated upon—owing to their being inclined to 
be wild—were still kept in hand during the day and put into a small paddock at 
night, and were so handled until the Isth June, when they were square-tailed and 
let go on their run. The loss was 3 head out of the lot of 216, and although 
ticks are fairly numerous on these cattle to-day they are healthy and in Al 
condition. Only one cow slipped her calf. ‘The 8 head that died’ were cows— 
young heifers with their first calves ; none of the very old cows died, although 
they got sick. : 
Bn the 11th June the balance of the stud cattle, 35 head, all ages, 
were inoculated, and none died, although most of them were sick. These cattle 
are alive and healthy-looking to-day, and fairly infested with ticks. This 
makes a total of 52 stud cattle operated on without a loss; 14 bush cattle 
were inoculated at the same time as the 85 head, and put in the same paddock ; 
3 head were also left in this paddock uninoculated, and they all died—-z.e., the 
uninoculated 3. 7 
On the 9th January, 1899, 350 head of mixed dairy cattle belonging to a 
selector were inoculated, and 16 died from the operation. When I last saw 
these cattle about a month ago, they were in splendid condition in spite of their 
having ticks on them. These cattle were put into three paddocks, and all the 
deaths, with the exception of one, occurred in one paddock. The owners of the 
cattle told me, a few days ago, that several cattle had died lately in the 
paddock where only the one beast died from inoculation, which seems to point 
to the fact that the operation did not react amongst the cattle in this paddock 
so well as in the others. I might state here that I sent 2 immune calves out to 
draw the blood from, the calves haying been previously inoculated with 5 e.c. 
of virulent red-water blood. One of these calves is now on Kilkivan Station 
for experimental purposes. 
