(Jrnn-al Notes. 475 



Surprise Butter Competitions- 



At the request of the Irish Dairy Association the Department of 

 Agriculture for Ireland has arranged to liold annually a number of 

 surprise butter competitions. The following account of the procedure 

 to be adopted is from the Journal of that Department, and the details 

 may prove of interest to local dairymen. On not more than eight 

 and not less than live occasions the Department will forward to each 

 person who enters the competition a telegram, requesting the recipient 

 to send to an addiess in Dublin a box of butter, containing 56 or 

 112 lbs. made on tliat day. The butter will be judged on one or 

 more occasions by one or more competent and independent persons 

 appointed by the Department. 



On the basis of the iiighest total number of points, and pi'ovided 



that judges consider the exhibits show sufficient merit, the following 



prizes will be given in each competition: — 



Prizes for First-class Butter . . . . . . . . £2 each. 



Prizes for Second-class Butter . . . . . . £1 each. 



Until further notice the following scale of points will be adopted 

 in judging :— 



Flavour . . . . 50 points. 



Texture .. .. 30 ,, 



Colour . . . . 5 ,, 



Packing and Finish . . 15 ,, 



Total .. 100 ,, 



The following special prizes are offered to exhibitors, provided 



that all the conditions of the competition are strictly adhered to, and 



that the total number of points obtained is not less than 90 per cent 



of the maximum number obtainable during the season: — 



To the Exhibitor obtaining the Highest Number of Points . . . . ^10 



To the Exhibitor obtaining the Second Highest Number of Points . . ^^6 

 To the Exhibitor obtaining the Third Highest Number of Points . . £4 



Sour Clover for Green Manure. 



The Sour Clover [Melilotus indica) which was tested at Dookie 

 and at Ardmona last year as a green manure crop, made very 

 satisfactory growth at both places. Self-sown plants, Mr. Pye reports, 

 grew to a height of four feet this season at Dookie, and Mr. Melhuish, 

 at Aidmona, sowed some seed late in May last, and by the end 

 of September a very heavy growth had been made. The sowing in 

 the latter case was unavoidably late, but next season it will be put in 

 •earlier, and there is reason to expect that the ideal winter-growing 

 green manure crop foi- northern orchards will be found in this plant. 

 At the Agricultural Experiment Station, Tucsoti, Arizona, U.S.A., this 

 was the only leguminous plant out of many tested which was able to 

 make sufficient growth during the winter, to be of any value for turn- 

 ing down by the time the apricots come into bloom. in the north 

 growers want to be through with their first ploughing by that time, 

 •or very shortly after, otherwise in ordinary years the ground gets too 



