7 
200 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar, 1900. 
we would have seen here performing on polo grounds but for the fact that they | 
fetch high figures in their own country. _Horse-breeding, however, in Sou! 
Africa will never be a very promising business unless a prophylactic cat 
- found for the horse sickness which carries off a horse in a few hours. : 
The Government has issued a pamphlet of directions to those concerned 
the duties of caring for the animals, and such experienced South African officers 
as Major Nunn, F.R.C.V.S., have lent their valuable assistance 12 J 
compilation. This gentleman, among other fellow-students of the writer, © 
sent out to the Cape to investigate the horse sickness, and laid the founda? 
of these investigations, which, it is hoped, will shortly bring forth frwt ™ Aa 
reliable “ vaccine” by which horses shall be artificially “ salted.” 
hay—meadow or clover—is not a general horse food, but that oats, cut whe 
not quite ripe and chaffed, or fed long, with the straw as cut, takes its ae 
the exigencies of the service compel all sorts of departures from the pres¢t g 
rules. , 
Bran, when it can be got, is recommended twice a week, and the mash A 
to be made by pouring boiling water slowly into a clean bucket in which d 
bran has already been put, and finally covering it over with a rug for ig | 
minutes to allow the steam to act on the bran. ‘This latter recommendatiol 
one we might more often insist on at home, as much of the fragrance 
mash is lost by not covering it up, and many readers will have noticed r 
indifferent some horses are to a mash. When ill, and sloppy food is desit@ f 
these horses have a worse chance of recovery, as they cannot, perhaps, eat ve 
they would like, and will not take what is best for them (a common trol 
with sick bipeds). ar 
POISONOUS HERBAGE. 
Horses in their native country, and, indeed, all animals, have an instine 
aversion to poisonous plants, but, taken 6,000 miles from home, are liable 
fall victims to strange herbage, and it is here that we may expect to lose a Bo 
many, apart from the fatal disease known as horse sickness. There 8 % 
appetising-looking plant which grows in the marshes and borders of river 
South Africa, wii the Boers call tulip, and gives horses a violent form of ¢? i 
in which they swell up to a great size in a short time, and, if not relieved, 1d | 
like a blown bullock on clover. If the vet. is available, with his case 0 si 
instruments, he will puncture the gut with a small instrument of the patt a 
readers may have seen employed in cases of hoven at home, and give insti 
relief by the outrush of gases through the cannula or pipe. fot 
The instructions referred to in the pamphlet are not, of course 
veterinary officers, but any man in authority, and it is recommended for cases 
tulip-poisoning to give a dose of ammonia carbonate, a very good thing A A 
at home, by the way, as its action is to break up the wind, and act as a stimu v 
upon the over-distended organs. 
tire 
