March 1896.] 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



449 



importations of hides are to take place under proper regulations prescribed 

 by the Secretary of the United States Treasury. 



Since the publication of the above information, the Board 

 have received through the Foreign Office a copy of a further 

 circular issued by the United States Treasury Department on 

 the 22nd November last, which contains revised regulations for 

 the disinfection of hides of neat cattle, and states that the 

 following procedure, which is intended solely for the protection 

 of cattle in the United States, and is recommended by the 

 Department of Agriculture of that country, will be required in 

 all cases of shipments of such hides, when not dry-salted or 

 arsenic-cured, from the countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, 

 Australia, and South America, viz. : — 



" Dry hides which have been salted or arsenic-cured may be 

 accepted as having been disinfected by the process of curing, 

 and need not be submitted to any further treatment. Dry hides 

 which have not been salted or arsenic-cured should be disinfected. 

 Disinfection with sulphur dioxide may be accepted in case a 

 room is provided which can be tightly closed, and also in case 

 the bundles of hides are undone and each hide suspended 

 separately from the ceiling in such a manner that there may be 

 free circulation of the sulphur fumes, and that all parts of the 

 surface may be acted upon. There should be at least 4 lbs. of 

 sulphur burned to each 1,000 cubic feet of air space, and the 

 room should be kept closed and the hides subjected to the 

 sulphur dioxide for six hours ; or the dry hides may be immersed 

 in a 4 per cent, solution of carbolic acid, or a 1 per 1,000 solution 

 of bichloride of mercury, until they are thoroughly wet with 

 the disinfectant. Fresh or moist hides, whether salted or not, 

 should be disinfected by immersion in a 5 per cent, solution of 

 carbolic acid, or a 1 per 1,000 solution of bichloride of mercury. 



" Ifc is further directed that hides of neat cattle, other than 

 dry-salted or arsenic-cured, the product of the countries above 

 named, will require disinfection as above whenever they shall be 

 shipped via the ports of any other country ; and that hides, 

 other than dry-salted or arsenic-cured, the product of any country 

 not named above, if transhipped and actually landed at ports in 

 any of the countries named, will require disinfection." 



It should be understood that these regulations do not in any 

 way modify or affect any regulations concerning disinfection 

 issued under the quarantine laws of the United States. 



Imports of Fresh Milk and Cream into the United 



Kingdom. 



In the course of last year attention was directed by» the 

 " Ugeskrift for Landmaend " to a process of freezing milk which 

 has been patented by M. Casse, a Danish engineer. The process 

 consisted in placing the milk into suitable receptacles and re- 

 frigerating it until a floating layer of frozen milk had formed on 

 the surface. It was found that milk treated in this way would 



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