that source assisted the endeavour to check the devastating disease. Since 1896 rinderpest has made its appearance almost every year, and on one occasion 156 head died from it or from red water. During the next six years the Company had a stiff uphill fight, between disease and the winning back of old customers. No dividends were paid, all available cash being vested in stock, buildings, land and general improvements.
FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE.
The first outbreak of foot and mouth disease (as far as is known of the history of this disease in the Colony) occurred at Mains of Pokfulum in 1899. It spread rapidly and in the course of one week was all over the farm. This disease, like rinderpest, seems to be most lively during the cool season, It became a hardy annual until quite recent years, but now seems to have entirely disappeared. All outbreaks of infectious disease are immediately reported to those responsible under the Sanitary department, who take precautions to prevent infected milk from leaving the shed in which it is produced. The method customarily adopted is to lock up the infected shed or remove the animals to a segregation hospital. The attendants are given quarters attached to the hospital and the door is kept locked to prevent them from visiting their friends over the farm and so spreading the disease. No one is allowed to enter the shed without donning a suit of overalls kept for the purpose at the hospital, even boots are thoroughly disinfected on leaving the shed.
ABORTION.
All stock breeders know the very serious and oftimes disastrous conse- quences when a herd of cattle become afflicted with abortion. This Company, almost since its inception, has been fighting abortion, and has spent large sums of money in trying the efficacy of almost every cure and preventive-specific known, down even to the ancient billy-goat. Rumour had it some four years ago that the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries of the United Kingdom, after experimenting for twenty years with a view to finding some means of preventing abortion, had at length arrived at the stage when something could be done. After a good deal of trouble trying to find the abortion bug, the Company eventually succeeded, through the good offices of the local Colonial Veterinary Surgeon and the Government Bacteriologist, who prepared and tested the vaccine with such excellent results that abortion was reduced from 30 to as low as 3%-
FLIES.
Every possible precaution is taken to ensure that flies do not come in contact with the milk. The dairy is in charge of an experienced European, who weighs the milk from each cow-boy and takes samples to be tested for future reference. The milk is then run over a specially constructed and artificial cooler enclosed in glass to exclude flies, with an exhaust electric fan on top of the cooler, pulling the air through a cotton-wool filter in an inlet near the bottom of the refrigerator. The Company has spent much money in fighting the fly by building covered fertiliser pits and digging in all farm manure deposited on grass land. These precautions prevent the breeding of flies on the Company's own premises.
TICKS.
During the early years of the history of the Company, almost the whole of the stock were infested with ticks. Many animals were rendered abso- lutely useless and it became a strenuous fight between the cattle and the ticks for existence. The cattle won, but it took several years of war against the ticks before the Company could claim their extinction in the immediate neighbourhood of the farms. For many years past not a tick has been found on the cattle. To give some idea of the great amount of labour necessitated, and the seriousness of the pest before it was got under, it might be instanced that as many as three boys have been engaged in picking ticks off one animal for three whole days.
GUINEA GRASS CULTIVATION.
One of the difficulties in the early days was the production of sufficient green fodder to give variation to the cattle-food. Many experiments were carried out with different plants with a view to selecting the most suitable forage to meet the conditions of the climate and soil, and the space available for cultivation. With intense cultivation, fair crops were obtained from cereals such as millet maize, but it was impossible to find sufficient ground to produce in one crop per annum enough forage to meet all requirements. Experiments with lucern by the most modern method were persisted in for about twelve years without any material success. The much advertised
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