farms.) In the implement-house to be sure. Why should they be left out to be injured by the sun? We hear much in this country of the wasting of the dung-heaps, which is only too well witnessed by the brown streams which trickle away from the solidifying mass fast robbing it of its best ingredients. We saw none of these brown streams on the Channel Islands. The stable manure, like everything else, is kept as it should be and where it should be. "In the interior of the houses of the people, as in their own personal habits and dress, there is the same air of measured comfort, the same spirit of industry, thrift, and intelligent well-doing, which pervaded open-air life in all parts of the Islands. If possible indeed the sense of economy is even keener in the home than in other spheres of life and labour. If there was little waste outside, there is less here. The smoke and hot fumes rise up as stealthily from the snug coal fire on the island hearth as from any other hearth, but they are not yet free to dissipate their properties in the open heavens. There is bacon to cure, and in passing they have this duty to perform. Verily it is good for one to go over those lovely islands, and see how wonderfully the bounties of Nature are made to minister to the wants of man." Scale of Points and Marks for judging Jersey Cows or Heifers, taken from the English and Island Herd Books. No matter what the competition, no cow should get a prize with less than eighty marks, or heifer with less than seventy-one marks. 4 Muzzle dark, and encircled by a light colour, with nostrils high and open 5 Horns small, not thick at the base, crumpled, tipped with black 7 Eyes full and placid 8 Neck, straight, fine, and lightly placed on the shoulders 11 Back straight from the withers to the setting-on of the tail 12 Back broad across the loins ... Number of Marks for Perfection. 5 3 4 4 5 .:. 3 3 3 5 5 5 3 3 13 Hips wide apart and fine in the bone; rump long, broad, and level 19 Hind quarters, from the hock to point of rump long, wide apart and well filled up 18 Colour: Whole colours of fawn, silver-grey, brown, dun, cream; rare specimens white, and some black 5 3 20 Hind legs squarely placed when viewed from behind, and not to cross or sweep in walking 21 Udder large, not fleshy, running well forward, in line with the belly, and well up behind 5 22 Teats moderately large, yellow, of equal size, wide apart, and squarely Scale of Points and Marks for judging Jersey Bulls, taken from the English and Island Herd Books. No matter what the competition, no bull should get a prize with less than eighty marks. Muzzle dark, encircled by light colour, with nostrils high and open Number of Marks for Perfection. 5 6 Horns small, not thick at the base, crumpled, tipped with black 7 Ears small and thin, and of deep orange within 8 Eyes full and lively 10 Withers fine, shoulders flat and sloping, chest broad and deep 11 Barrel hooped, broad, deep, and well ribbed up ... 12 Back straight from the withers to the setting-on of the tail 13 Back broad across the loins ... 14 Hips wide apart and fine in the bone 15 Rump long, broad, and level 16 Tail fine, reaching the hocks, and hanging at right angles with the back ... 17 Hide thin and mellow, covered with fine, soft hair 18 Hide of a yellow colour 19 Legs short, straight, and fine, with small hoofs 20 Colour: Whole colours of fawn, silver-grey, brown, dun, cream; rare specimens white, and some black 21 Hind quarters from the hock to point of rump long, wide apart, and well filled up 5 3 3 22 Hind legs squarely placed when viewed from behind, and not to cross or sweep in walking 23 Nipples to be squarely placed and wide apart 24 Growth ... 25 General appearance Perfection Euphorbia Drummondii. Commonly known as "Milk-weed," and erroneously reputed to be poisonous. Revised edition by EDWARD STANLEY, F.R.C.V.S., Eng., Chief Veterinary Inspector, New South Wales, on the Australian weed Euphorbia Drummondii, with results of experiments therewith in the Urana district, and at Randwick, with an appendix of the opinions of several stockowners. Euphorbia Drummondii. MANY specimens of this plant have reached the Stock Office, Department of Mines and Agriculture, from various sources, and to it has been attributed much loss amongst sheep, from its supposed poisonous properties. On inquiry, I failed to find anyone acquainted with the symptoms of illness produced by the poison, or with the post-mortem lesions. Its evil reputation may be traced to two sources; first, under certain circumstances, to be detailed later on, it may cause fatal indigestion; secondly, botanists classify it with an acrid poisonous family, the Euphorbiacea. În structure it is allied to this group, but it has none of the caustic medicinal elements that distinguish the order. Baron von Mueller gave the plant a bad reputation, in consequence of the known properties of the order to which it belonged, and he was confirmed in his opinion by the voluminous correspondents who inundated him with specimens of the plant and statements of losses in stock which he received year after year from all parts of Australasia. Messrs. Bailey and Gordon, in their book on "Reputed Poisonous Plants in Queensland," give this plant a very bad character, but Mr. Gordon has since refuted it. (Vide Appendix.) There can be no doubt that losses of sheep do occur from eating this plant, but there is no reason to consider it the béte noir of Australian herbage, as I shall prove later on. I will now give my views as a veterinarian from practical observation. I have noticed the wide-spread distribution and hardy nature of the plant, Euphorbia Drummondii, which is probably eaten by tens of thousands of sheep every day in the various Colonies of Australasia. It flourishes all the year round, resists drought, and rapidly shoots up after light rain, then being tender and tempting herbage. It is well known that sheep after a drought or from enforced hunger will eat greedily, gorging themselves with several young succulent plants, such as clover, lucerne, green wheat, trefoil, thistles, mallow, wild parsuip, or any other succulent green food that may be so rapidly swallowed as to distend the first stomach, then chemical action proves stronger than the vital functions, causing indigestion, fermenting in the stomach, distending the abdomen, producing mechanical pressure on the vital organs, and death from suffocation. Such deaths are not due to poison, but are purely accidental, mechanical and not toxic. This condition has often been mistaken for poisoning, and explains, I think, the very conflicting views that have been expressed on the subject of this paper. It is not suggested that there are no poisonous plants; the Materia Medica contains a long list of medicinal plants, and several are undoubtedly poisonous, so far as their special toxic action goes; but it should be remembered that the active principles are so combined with digestible materials, that animals provided with the powerful stomachs of ruminants can resist the ill effects of improper food. They are provided with a keen sense of taste and smell, and naturally avoid noxious plants, which are frequently acrid, bitter, nauseous, or odorous, so that it is only when pressed by a craving appetite that they feed indiscreetly. Drovers are too apt to attribute losses in sheep to poisonous plants. There can be no doubt that death sometimes overtakes them, but more often fatalities are due to the incidents and hardships of travelling. As the object of this inquiry was to elicit truth and dispel error, I would caution drovers and others to be careful about permitting hungry sheep to gorge themselves with this weed, which is often abundant near creeks and water-holes. Do not water immediately after feeding or drive them about; it is better to let them rest until rumination gives them relief from the discomfort of over-feeding. In order to assist in the recognition of this plant, I have introduced an excellent illustration from Messrs. Bailey and Gordon's work, with their botanical description of the plant, as follows: Euphorbia Drummondii, caustic creeper. A postrate or diffuse, milky, much-branched plant, smooth, and of a light-grey colour, or here and there stained with red; the leaves oblong or nearly round, opposite on the stems, obtuse or notched at the end, about 4 inch long. Flower heads small, on short stalks in the axils of the leaves. Capsule smooth, the seeds rough. This little plant is met with throughout Australia, including Tasmania." I found the plant freely distributed over a very wide area in the Lachlan and Riverina, and noticed it cropped short, unless it was protected from sheep by a fence, as in a garden, on the railway, in a horse paddock, &c.; in such situations the plant is conspicuous, growing a foot high, being very hardy in drought, and in slight rain it grows rapidly; where sheep eat it, the plant grows close along the ground almost like a creeper. Near Urana a large patch of the plant grows on the stock route, where only very scanty herbage is seen for miles. Mr. Brett informed me that in October, just after rain, a drover arrived at this patch with 3,000 sheep that had been starving for three or four days previously; they stopped and ate up the patch of Euphorbia, and walked a mile or so on to Urana Common to water and camp. In three hours about 1,500 were lying ill over a space of ground, and 229 died before morning. Symptoms: Distended stomach, staggering gait, frothy discharge from nose and mouth, unable to rise when down. The 1,280 sufferers that survived continued to travel next day, with the others that were unaffected. This instance is valuable, because the number that died was small, and the recoveries being so large and so quick remove all suspicion of poison. For years before and since that occurred, many thousands of sheep have travelled the same road without ill effects. |