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Random remarks and current comment on matters
affecting the man on the land
THE PASSING PARADE
by MULGA '
A N interesting development took place
last weèk in connection with the
so-called "clover disease'' of sheep first
noted here in Western Australia. This
disease is caused by an oestrogen-like
substance-a female sex hormone
found in subterranean clover, a heavy
intake of which causes a hormone
imbalance producing some freakish
results. The director of our Institute of
Agriculture (Professor E. J. Underwood),
who is one of the research team respon-
sible for the early work on this problem,
received a telephone call from the
director of the American Cancer
Research Institute, New York, offering
to fly him over to America to discuss the
possibilities of using this oestrogen in
the treatment of certain forms of cancer
in human beings.
Se
Professor Underwood, whose photograph ap-
pears on the cover of this issue, has been appointed
one of the Australian delegates to the British
Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau conference .
to be held in London from June 21 to July 15.
He will leave-Sydney by air on June 14 and will
be in London four days later.
He had already arranged to return via the
U.S.A. and the Pacific so doubtless will be able
to spend some time at the Cancer Research Insti-
tute before returning to Perth. .
Mr. R. J. Moir of the Institute of Agriculture
is another of our scientists who will.be leaving
Australia this month. Mr. Moir leaves on June
26 for the Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen,
Scotland, where he will work for a year on certain
aspects of bacteria in the rumen of sheep in
relation to nutrition, a field in which he has been
engaged during his four years at the Institute
of Agriculture. He has been granted a year's
study leave by the Üniversíty .and also a research
studentship from the Science and Industry Endow-
ment Fund controlled by the executive of the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation.
The Old Coast Road
j\ß these columns wear no party colours, I have
always been free to hand out brickbats or
bouquets to Governments on both sides of the
political fence. Perhaps the brickbats have out-
numbered the bouquets, for most of us are
content to remain quiescent when a Government
or an individual is doing a good job. It is when
their performances fall short of our ideals that
we promptly get busy and reach for the brickbats.
I have long felt that a few bouquets are due
to the Honorary Minister for Agriculture (Mr.
G. B. Wood) whose term of office has revealed
qualities of courage and enthusiasm tempered with
sound common sense which have rendered excel-
lent service to the farming community. He was
largely responsible for the forward niove in the
Esperance district, and the general trend towards
light land utilisation in other parts of the State.
Now I note that he is enthusiastically advocating
the opening up of the old coast rojtd from Man-
durah to Australind so that its hinterland might
serve to increase the State's wholemilk produc-
tion. This land enjoys a high rainfall in the order
of 40 inches annually and, in the light of modern
agricultural research, may be capable of a high
degree of development in both summer and winter
lands.
Possibly as a result of Mr. Wood's recent in-
spection there will* be an intensification of activity
jn this belt of country. We already have some
data available from experiments conducted by the
Department of Agriculture and a C.S.I.R.O. soil
survey should provide valuable basic information*.
Many projects which have remained at the
"talking stage" for years have burgeoned into real
activity under pressure from Mr. Wood and pos-
sibly the old coast rpad will once again become a
busy thoroughfare, as the lands near it are brought
into fuller production.
CLUNY WHITE KNIGHT: This.white Shorthorn bull is due to arrive in Australia shortly to join the Woomargama Stud of Mr. C. P. Fairbairn at Albury, N.S.W. He was purchased at the Perth (Scotland) Show and Sales this year. Help
CLUNY WHITE KNIGHT: This.white Shorthorn bull is due to arrive in Australia shortly to join the
Woomargama Stud of Mr. C. P. Fairbairn at Albury, N.S.W. He was purchased at the Perth (Scotland)
Show and Sales this year.
Imported Shorthorn Sire
PICTURED on this page is Cluny White Knight,
a Shorthorn bull which is due in Australia
shortly to go to the famous Woomargama ^Short-
horn Stud at Albury» N.S.W. This stud is send«
lng a team to the 1950 Perth Royal Show which
will include à number of heifers io calf to Kirkton
Eventide, an imported sire which ls reported to
be breeding well.
Cluny White Knight is from the Cluny Castle
herd of Mrs. B. H. Linzee Gordon, Aberdeenshire,
Scotland. * His sire is Chapçlton Crusader, a bull
which took first prizes at two Royal Highland
Shows, and whose first crop of calves included two
sold in Buenos Aires for £3,700 and £2,600
respectively.
The dam of Cluny White Knight is Lana,
purchased from the Upperntill Stud, Tar vis,
Aberdeenshire for 350gns. as a calf. '
Dairying Textbook
QN May ll I published a notice of a book
"Dairy Farming in Australia" issued by the
Department of Commerce and Agriculture. The
paragraph stated that the book was available free
to all dairy farmers milking ten or more cows
and that copies could be obtained by applying to
x the Director-General of Agriculture, Sydney.
I have recently been informed that this offer
was only intended to apply to dairy farmers in the
State of Victoria as the book is being issued even-
tually in six separate State editions and up to date
the Victorian edition is the only one that has been,
printed.
When the edition covering dairy farming in this
State is published, a notice concerning its distri-
bution will be printed.
M ea tm ea I Ration
fHB ration of Government controlled meâtmeal
for June would revert to 25 per cent of basal
quotas for poultry and pigs, the Acting Director
of Agriculture (Mr. A. McKenzie Clark) an-
nounced last week. The reduction was due to a
pronounced falling off in the number of stock
offering for slaughter following the recent wide-,
snread rains.
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