THE MICE PLAGUE IN AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3070, 4 May 1917, Page 8

THE MICE PLAGUE IN AUSTRALIA

FARMERS' HEAVY LOSSES SET DOWN AT £100,000 The plague of mico which became a serious menace to wheat fanners in Australia at the' beginning of March still prevails. Mice have been destroyed in vast numbers at the wheat stacks in Victoria, but the Wheat Commission attests that this destruction makes no appreciable difference in tho visible number remaining. Practically all the wheat area of Victoria lias been attacked by this pest. Its worst ravages have been made in the Wimmera and mid-mallee country, but tho Goulburn Valley has suffered severely. In the newer wheat fields by tho railway from Oiiyen to Murrayville evidence of the brown plague is loss marked. Victoria is not the only State that has suffered. Devastating-hordes of mice liave made an irruption into the wheat districts of Eivorina, but on the whole New South Wales lias been more fortunate than this State. South Australian wheat stacks have been invaded by myriads of mice, and tho damage done there is very extensive, but Western Australia has suffered in a. minor degree. Their inroads havo not always been confined to wheat, for at Doniliquin they swarmed into houses, and a storekeeper at Port Lome, in South Australia, had his entire stock, with the .exception of hardware, consumed by tho vermin in one night. All the groceries were eaten up, ant] holes were bored into tho boots and shoes.

Remedies to the Fore, Kcracdtes by the score have boon suggested for.the extirpation of tho posts. Over aix <weeks ago tlie Victorian Wlieafc Commission appointed a committee to co-operato with, the vermin destruction branch of the Lands Department in socking for a remedy, and tlio South Australian Government offers' a reward of £100 for anybody who can show an effectivo way of destroying mice in wheat 'stacks. INimigatiiig tho wheat with bi-sulpbato of carbon to rend'er it unpalatable to the nvico- lias met with somo fayoitr, hut /oneing in tho stacks with, sheets of galvanised iron was ultimately adopted as the principal means of saving tho wheat, and South Australia followed the same course Tho sheets aro lot into tho ground with the greater portion' remaining abovo tho surface, and between each of them is left a space where a hole is dug to receive a ker<fseno tin containing a small quantity of water. Whon tho lnico ruu along the feuco looking for a way in and como to one of tho openings they dard fonvardl \and fall into tho tin, from which thero is no escape Large numbers moot their fate, also, when Boeka way out after having broken their meal. It is to bo deplored that somo moro rapid' method of destruction has not been ovolved. ■ Tho- remarkable provalonco of the post this year cannot bo dissociated from the highly, prolific harvests and tho unprecedented! accumulation of grain, caused by lack of shipping freight. Field mice multiply with extreme rapidity, and tho number of survivors seems to depend on the quantity of food available. Tho rn'ospect of free-* ing farmers and tho grain trado complotoly from this eucmy seems to doppndon tho occurrence of somo disease, cither through a natural agency or a.s the result of chemical or bacteriological experiment. Native cats wore a plague in parts of Victoria until a disease broke cut among thorn.It would bo unwiso, however, to place much confidence in any scheme for killing tho mice, and in tho meantime their opportunity for mischief might bo reduced perhaps to nearly vanishing point by speedy introduction of bulk handling "of grain,- to which the Government is committed. Mr. J. E. Brewer, president of tho council of tho Chambor of Agriculture, estimates that Victorian farmers will loso £100,000 as si result of tho mouso plaguo, and points to silos placed in suitablo localities as tho remedy.

'i'ho Australian Wheat Board Las fixed 7 per cont. as , tho amount of damage by mice to -wheat stock that must be made- good by tho agent. A greater loss is regarded as an unforseen visitation, and tho agent is saddled with only 3 per cent, of it. If tho damage should amount to 20 per cent., tho board would bear 17 per cent., and the agent 3 per cent, of the burden. In other words, tho 17 per cent, loss would come out of the farmers' dividend. At the initiation of the pool tho agents were freely criticised for having driven a hard bargain. They offered to do their work if paid o£d.-per bushel net, but tho management of tho pool declined to accept the proposal, which would have involved much work in the checking of accounts and possible complications and disputes. Tho management eventually agreed to pay 3£d. per bushel, tho agents to bear the cost of handling and tako ordinary risks. Every foreseen or probable loss as a rule is the growers' loss, as it is taken into account when tho buyer makes his quotation. It is too early yet to compute whether tho greater part of the loss caused by mico will fall on the agent or on the grower. Obviously, if the mouse plague becomes permanent, farmers are likely to suffer all the loss it will cause, and there should, be no relaxation of effort to minimise the damage.