Fishy Butter. 



57 



a yield poorer by 6 to 8| tons on the average. The means of 

 the twenty-two varieties are as follows : — 



Average of 1st sowing, ist pulling - - - 41 tons 1,084 lbs. 



„ „ 2nd „ „ „ - - - - 41 „ 553 „ 



» ist „ 2nd „ .... 33 „ 338 



»2nd „ „ 35 » 22 3 » 



The carrots exhibited results similar to those yielded by the 

 turnips, early sowing increasing the crop by to 5 tons, and 

 late pulling giving a yield larger by 2I to 3 tons : — 



Average of ist sowing, ist pulling 27 tons 7661bs. 



„ „ 2nd „ „ „ 22 „ 1,763 „ 



ist 2nd „ 30 ,, 668 „ 



„ „ 2nd „ „ „ - - - - - 25 „ 950 „ 



Fishy Butter. 



The Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales for March 

 last contains an account by Mr. M. A. O'Callaghan, dairy 

 expert attached to the Department of Agriculture in that 

 colony, of inquiries conducted by him into the cause of fishy- 

 flavoured butter. As a result of his investigations and 

 experiments he found that he was always able to detect the 

 organism Oidium lactis in the fishy butter examined by him, 

 and was, moreover, able to impart the flavour to butter by 

 adding pure cultures of this mould to sterilised cream. 



Mr. O'Callaghan remarks that Oidium lactis , while not so 

 common in milk as some authors suppose, will, if it is in the 

 atmosphere, prefer milk, more especially milk or cream 

 slightly acid, to any other medium on which to grow. As an 

 example of a possible source of contamination, he found the 

 mould growing luxuriantly in a butter factory where neither 

 walls nor roof, which were of timber and about nine years old, 

 had ever been limewashed or otherwise cleansed ; there were 

 no bad smells to indicate the presence of the fungus. Other 

 observers have also found the Oidium to grow well on old 

 woodwork; while Mr. F. J. Lloyd, in his Cheddar cheese 

 investigations in Somersetshire, found it abundant in an 

 earthenware drain-pipe carrying whey to a receptacle in the 



