1 Juny, 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 189 
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very little practical remedy. Certain animals were affected at Mackay, and 
at the instance of the head of the Agricuitural Department action was taken 
to destroy them. You know very well that there are diseases for which, so 
far as scientific knowledge has travelled, there is no remedy. The only thing 
is to prevent their spread. In the matter of swine fever it seems there 
is no remedy at ali. It seems to be the same with rinderpest, scab, and other 
diseases. At present that is the position, I am informed, of knowledge. At 
Mackay the destruction of the stock supposed to be affected did result in the 
cutting short of the spread of the disease. 
Vhe Session concluded with the submission of a number of resolutions 
for reference to the Committee of Resolutions. 
EIGHTH SESSION, 
Fray Arrernoon, 14ru June, 1901, 2°15 p.m. 
. ANALYSIS OF SOILS.- 
Mr. J. C. Brunnicry (Agricultural Chemist, Department of Agriculture): 
It appears that the remarks made by me on Wednesday evening on the subject 
of soil analyses have been misunderstood by some members of the Conference. 
Some seem to imagine that I said the analysing of soils was completely value- 
less, and that it was, in fact, impossible to obtain an absolutely correct analysis 
of a soil. That is a totally wroug impression, and, as an agricultural chemist, 
it would have been wrong for me to have inferred such a thing.- What I 
meant to say was this: that if a sample of soil is taken in a promiscuous way 
by a farmer and, without any proper precautions, submitted to analysis, then the 
result would very often be valueless to the farmer. But that has nothing to 
do with the accuracy of the analysis. Analyses must, in most cases, be of the 
greatest value. It must not be thought for one moment when I said that in 
many cases soil analyses were valueless to farmers, that the analyses were 
wrong or that they were always valueless. 
The Hon. D. H. Daneyvmrre: It is almost a platitude to say if you take 
an analysis of a specimen from a gold mine that it is exceedingly likely to 
mislead anyone. But if analyses are taken, under proper conditions, of the 
average product of the mine, then they may be of the greatest possible value. 
Tf I have a farm of 100 acres, grub up a handful of soil and send it to a 
chemist, that chemist will be able to tell me the constituents of that particular 
sample, but the analysis of it will be no criterion as to the value of the farm. 
Certain conditions are necessary to ensure an analysis being of value, but 
that has nothing to do with the accuracy of the analysis. A farmer in securing 
specimens should exercise sufficient judgment either in obtaining a sample of 
the general soil or else get several different samples and submit each one for 
investigation by the chemist. That chemical analyses are of value is a self- 
evident fact. 
Mr. R. Darr then read, on behalf of Mr. HE. Dalton, of Razorback, 
Palmwoods, the following paper on — 
EXTERMINATION OF FLYING FOXES. 
[By E. E. Darron, Razorback, Palmwoods. ] 
The paper that I have been instructed by my association to prepare and read 
before this Conference is not with the fixed purpose of bringing before your notice a 
pest and its remedy, but rather that interest may be excited in and attention directed 
to that insidious pest that, unlike most enemies that stalk at noonday, flies and devours 
at night—namely, “The Flying Fox.” 
‘Phere is scarcely one of us present at this meeting who is not thoroughly 
acquainted with the weird, shrill ery of the flying fox, but 1 am not so sure if we are 
likewise acquainted with the amount of damage which is constantly being done by 
these nocturnal visitors. 
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