Summary A record was made of the prevalence of Cysti-

cereus ovis in sheep and lambs killed at Albany, Waroona and Geraldton from 1970 until 1973. Detailed dissection of 292 carcases which had passed routine inspection revealed C. ovis in 60 (20 .5%) . A record of all C. ovis cysts found during routine boning of 102,262 carcases which passed normal inspection showed 10.4 cysts per 100 carcases, and in 6,863 carcases rejected for export because of the presence of C. ovis an average of 24.0 cysts per 100 carcases. An attempt was made to relate the incidence of

carcases infected with C. ovis in a line of sheep with the incidence of undetected cysts in carcases from that line which had passed routine inspection. No relationship was established.

The relative incidence of C. ovis and C. tenui- collis was recorded hi 57,426 sheep to show C. ovis in 2,312 (4.0%) and C. tenuicollis in 15,123

(26.3%). Only 21 (0.1%) sheep in 26,774 were found with hydatid cysts.

In 3,823 lambs from 40 farms 486 lambs from 6 farms did not show either C. ovis or C. tenui- coZlis. Lambs from 9 farms did not show C. tenuicollis and lambs from 25 farms did not show C. ovis.

In 604 C. ovis cysts from the hearts and dia- phragms of lambs, 36 (6.0% ) were considered to be alive.

References Arundel, J. (1972)-Cysticercosis in Sheep and Cattle.

Report by Aust. Meat Research Committee. Broadbent, D. W. (1972)-Aust vet. J . 48: 452. McCleery, E. F. and Wiggins, G. S . (1960)-Ver. Rec.

72: 43. McNab, J. D. and Robertson, T. G. (1972)--N.Z. vet. 1.

20: 66. Sweatman, G. K. (1962)--N.Z. vet. 1. 10: 93. Whiting, R. H. (1972)-Aust. vef. 1. 48: 449. White, J. B. and de Chaneet, G. (1975)-Aust. vet. J.

(Received for publication 19 April 1974) In press.

BOOK REVIEW PIONEERS OF FERTILITY

“Civilization depends on fertility. History records what happens unless the land is kept in good heart. Babylon and Persia, Assyria and Egypt failed primarily because they failed to understand the basic princioles of agriculture. Where these great nations were once all-powerful there are deserts because they let the land get below the limit of necessary fertility, so that the soil began to wash, or blow, away and cropping became impossible. The history of agriculture is the history of man trying to find means of keeping the soil in good heart while continually taking his food from it.”

This quotation comes from “Pioneers of Fertility”? a fascinating book by Porteous written in 1948, which recounts the story of a number of farmers in Great Britain who were innovators - Fitzherbert of Norbury, Thomas Tusser, Walter Blight, Gervase Markham, John Houghton, Mortimer, Jethro Tull, Charles Townsend, Arthur Young, the Dukes of Bedford, Coke of Nor- folk, Sir Humphrey Davy, The Drainers, J. J. Mechi, Knight of Exmoor, Justus von Liebig, Wren Hoskins, Sir John Laws, Sir Henry Gilbert, Augustus Voelcker, Robert Elliot, Dr Robert Warington. Australia has seen, and still sees her own “pioneers of fertility” many of whom were graziers who began the “pastoral .re- volution” and now reap the harvest of greater carrymg capacity from sown and fertilised pastures. Their story has yet to be told in full but there are parts of it beginning to be recorded. One thinks of those one has known personally - White of Bald Blair, Jeffries of Delegate, Brodribb of Froddey, Watson of Wollogor- ang, and foremost among them Prell of Gundowringa.

In a small book* by. William Bayley is the story which “tells of a life wluch was devoted to the land of Australia, and through it shines the portrait of a man

*Gundowringa. William A. Bayley. Gundowdnga Crookwell. N.S.W. The Halstead Press, Sydney. 1951, reirinted 1965. 54 p with numerous photographs.

of outstanding integrity and character.” It tells of Charles Prell OBE and the development of Gundow- ringa near Crookwell in New South Wales. I was for- tunate to see something of the beginning of the “pas- toral revolution” there when in the early 1930’s the then CSIR began field trials directed by the late Sir Ian Clunies ROSS, then Officer-in-Charge of the newly established McMaster Laboratory - and indeed Frederick McMaster of Dalkeith may well also be numbered among the “pioneers of fertility”. The re- sults of the trials are noted in an appendix which shows that wool per acre on natural pasture was but 9 lb 2 oz; it was 34 lb 14 oz on sown pasture. (1. Coun. sci. indusfr. Res., Ausf. 5 : 31, 6: 26, 7: 131.)

This small book describes Gundowringa and its de- velo ment and the challenge it presented to Charles R e f when he went there in the early 19OO’s, to the blossoming abundance he achieved with magnificent pastures, top-.class Corriedales and prime cattle. Per- haps the achievement is best expressed in the title of the fifth chapter - The Hills Rejoice - where the transformation from “the drought batridden land, empty and barren of succour” is recorded.

Here is history and inspiration, a story of detennina- tion, of a participation in and with the “great collabora- tive expertise of science” of the fulfilment of a vision. “The land, enriched by the labours and experiments of Charles Prell, will go down to posterity more fertile than it was when the first white man settled on it.” There is still a Pnll at Gundowringa - the land is still in good hands; as Honorary Librarian of the Max Henry Memorial Library I am grateful for the pre- sentation of the book by Jeff Prell. The book is not to be sold - rather presented where its story is appre- ciated.

H. McL. Gordon

122 Australian Veterinary Journal, Vol. 52, March, 1976