1 Frp., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 115 
more salt is added, and the cheese turned, so that the whole surface is covered 
with salt. After a few days the cheeses are put into tanks of strong brine, and 
kept there until they become somewhat hard to the touch. Then they are 
removed, washed in tresh water, and dried. 
After this the cheeses are transferred to the curing-room, a high, airy 
compartment, lighted with diffused sunlight only. The floor of this room is 
occupied with closely-placed rows of stands, carrying tiers of shelves, upon 
which the cheeses are arranged side by side. For the next four weeks careful 
watch is kept, and the cheeses turned frequently (once a day, I believe). ‘The 
atmosphere must not be too damp, while dry, cold air is fatal to success. A 
wet and dry bulb thermometer is kept on the wall, and its reading in one 
room visited was 14°6 degrees Centigrade for the dry and 15:7 degrees Centi- 
_grade for the wet. Sooner or later the surface of the cheese becomes covered 
with a growth of mould. This, however, is rubbed or scraped off so soon as 
it reaches a certain degree of luxuriance. 
It is usual to send the cheeses to market before they are fully cured— 
when they are between, say, four and six weeks old. The dealers have large 
curing-stores similar to those already described, and to the shelves of these the 
cheeses, fresh from the market, are vent, where they undergo the final changes 
of curing and preparation for the provision dealer or export agent. 
The preparation essentially consists of smoothing the surface of each 
cheese by the use of a machine and by rabbing in linseed oil. After this they 
are coloured according to fancy or fashion—sometimes red, sometimes yellow, 
and occasionally red and blue in alternate bands. Those intended for home 
consumption, however, are not, as a rule, coloured at all. The wholesale 
price ot the best “ Hdams’’ is at the rate ot twenty-one guilders (a guilder 
equals 1s. 83d. English money) for fifty kilos (= 110-2 Ib.), or twenty-six 
uilders, including freightage, to a London wharf.—Agricultural Gazette 
(London). . 
SELECTION OF FEEDING CATTLE. 
POINTS IN A FEEDING ANIMAL. 
Turs is an important matter to all concerned in agricultural or pastoral 
pursuits. If the cattle are merely purchased by the tarmer to winter in the 
straw-yard, and to be again sold out in the spring as stores for grazing and _ 
finishing off in the fattening land of the pastoralist, it is just as important to 
him as to the latter that proper care and discrimination should be taken in 
selection. ; 
Tt is common knowledge that certain descriptions of bullocks will thrive 
better than others. By appearance it is quite possible in many cases to at 
once determine the likelihood of the cattle being what—to use a general term— 
ean be described as “ good doers” or otherwise, as the case may be. Then, 
again, it is most essential that the animals selected should be of a build likely 
to produce when fat the largest weight of beef on the more valuable parts of 
the carcass. Experience, of course, is an essential need in successful oceupa- 
tions of all kinds, and, consequently, it is of interest to all to have brought 
before them the experience which, in some form or other, all engaged in this. 
occupation have from time to time gained. : a oh 
The following may be taken in a general way as being useful aids in 
assisting in the proper selection of cattle for feeding. — 
They must be well bred, of a blocky frame, with stout build on short 
straight legs, wide, level back and loin, well-sprung ribs, fulness at the back of 
the shoulder, and in the flanks both fore and hind, prominent brisket, full neck 
vein, wide chest; this being most important and essential, for if mean and 
narrow at this point it may be almost taken as a certainty that the animal will 
never thrive and do as should be the case. Then the “handle or touch” (for, 
no matter how poor an animal may be, the “touch” is there all the same) must 
be soft and mellow, and the skin supple and covered with fine silky hair, giving 
