490 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Juxx, 1899. 
and coffee occupy with us, both of these being here practically unknown. 
Owing to its extremely bitter an dunpleasant taste, we were prevented from 
giving the sustaining properties of the Kola a fair trial. On the occasions 
when, through lack of food, we would gladly have made the experiment, we were 
unable to obtain the nut. Whatever its real virtues may be, it is certain that 
the commercial value of Kano is toa yery large extent dependent upon the 
millions of Kolas which its market contains. 
On one occasion I met a native caravan consisting of about 1,000 men, 
together with a large number of donkeys, carrying Kola nuts up towards Kano. 
The value of the nuts in the caravan, which was only one out of several that 
annually come to Kano for the same purpose, was little less than £100,000 
sterling. The whole of this immense trade is at present in the hands of natives, 
as the course of the Niger is not such as to allow of the Kolas being carried by 
water any part of the way. 
AGRICULTURAL CONFERENCE. 
THE third Queensland Farmers’ Conference will be held at Mackay this year, 
commencing on Monday, 26th June. The first Conference was held at the 
Queensland Agricultural College, Gatton, on the 10th, 11th, and 12th June, 
1897. The second, the Agricultural and Pastoral Conference, at Rockhampton, 
on the 11th, 12th, and 13th May,1898. Both the Conferences brought together 
a large number of delegates from almost all centres of rural industry in the 
colony, and were productive of immeasurable good to farmers, planters, pastor- 
alists, and horticulturists. 
SLOVENLY EAR-MARKING. 
A TasMAntAn correspondent of the Australasian, who complains of the serious 
losses of sheep from the paddocks of which sheep not a trace is ever found, sends 
the accompanying sketches of what he properly calls ear disfigurements :— 
Fig. 1 is called the gap ; Fig. 2, the split (sometimes there are two splits) ; 
Fig. 8, the tongue fork; and Fig. 4, the bayonet. Like all experienced sheep- 
farmers on the mainland, he is of opinion that a registration of ear-marks would 
be beneficial. 
MOSQUITOES. 
A ZAnziBar paper says: Throw a bit of alum about the size of a marble into a 
bowl of water, and wet the hands and face and any exposed parts lightly with 
it. Not a mosquito will approach you. They hum about a little, and dis- 
appear. 
ES ee em 
