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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 3 (July 1, 1933)

Conquest of “Bush Sickness.”

Conquest of “Bush Sickness.”

A good few years ago experts of the Agricultural Department were mystified by cases of a disease known as “bush sickness” among stock, reported mainly from parts of the “pumice belt” in the North Island. By the way, the term “bush sickness” tends to be misleading, as the trouble was not confined to bush country.

At first it was thought that the animals had absorbed poison from the pastures, but analysis disproved that theory. If animals stayed on the affected ground they gradually became “living skeletons” and died, but if they were shifted in time to another type of land they usually recovered.

Well, here was a tough problem for the Department—an area between two million and three million acres, where death kept court for cattle and sheep. If was a long, persistent, triumphant research for the Chemistry Division, under Mr. B. C. Aston. The trouble was traced to a deficiency of iron in the soil. It has been demonstrated that the health of animals and mankind requires about .004 per cent. of iron in the body—and this need was lacking in the pumice country.

The necessary iron for stock was usually supplied in a mixture of finely ground limonite (an oxide of iron) and salt, compressed into “licks,” left in troughs on the pastures. The mixture, in the powdered form, may also be sprinkled on hay or ensilage. Huge deposits of satisfactory limonite are in the Whangarei district and other localities.

A big response to lime. An experiment carried out on a farmer's property illustrating a marked effect from liming. The strips of prolific clover were limed; those with little growth received no lime.

A big response to lime. An experiment carried out on a farmer's property illustrating a marked effect from liming. The strips of prolific clover were limed; those with little growth received no lime.

The result of that research, work which is of enormous economic importance to a large tract of the North Island, has also proved beneficial in some regions in other countries, where deficiency in iron had caused a wasting disease in farm animals.