160 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Fes., 1898. 
nothing in it. Success in cultivation is certain loss in exporting the clean 
product. Thousands of acres of cotton were grown in Queensland during the 
Civil War in America, the farmers raising two bales of clean cotton per acre. 
Nothing then paid so well as this crop, but to-day, for Australia, with high 
rates of wages, long sea voyage, and with all attendant charges, to attempt to 
compete with Egypt, India, the United States, Africa, and other countries, is 
futile. The last clean cotton shipped to England by the writer, in 1870 and 
1871, brought 72d. per Ib., when previously the same class of cotton had 
averaged 1s. 03d. per lb. The price of the seed cotton (3d. per lb.), the cost 
of ginning, baling, cartage, freight, commission, &c., effectually cleared away 
any profit, and left a loss. 
DANGEROUS BUTTER FROM INDIA. 
A. CORRESPONDENT writing to the Standard mentions the danger likely to arise 
from Indian butter being admitted into England. He says:—A correspondent 
who formerly occupied an important official position in India informs me that 
a ton of butter made in Bombay has either reached, or will shortly reach, this 
country. He is of opinion that the authorities should be warned of the 
danger of allowing this butter to come into consumption, seeing that it was 
made ina city in which fever, cholera, and the plague are prevalent. he 
filthy habits of the petty Indian dairyman, he says, are notorious, aud they 
would think nothing of keeping milk in their single room, even if it were occu- 
pied by a victim of one of the diseases named above. ‘The reason of the 
exportation of butter from Bombay, which is quite unusual, is that the popu- 
lation of the city has been reduced 50 per cent. by deaths and the exodus of 
people flying from the danger of disease. 
‘This is corroborated by another correspondent, who declares that no 
Anglo-Indian would ever dream of using native-made butter, taking into 
consideration its filthy manufacture. ‘“ Muccum’ it is called in the vernacular, 
and the name is appropriate. During the whole tenure of his command in a 
well-known Indian service he never allowed it on board, either for the use 
of officers, engineers, or passengers—tinned butter only, which he made his 
butler, to render it more appetising, first wash in “ condensed milk,” place in 
the ice-chest, and serve up in pats, dressed with a little parsley and a few 
peppercorns, and many lady passengers often remarked “ what delightful fresh 
butter he kept on board.” 
PROPERTIES OF APPLES. 
THe Bulletin of Pharmacy says:—The apple is such a common fruit that 
few persons are familiar with its remarkable efficacious medicinal properties. 
Everybody ought to know that the best thing they can do is to eat apples just 
before retiring for the night. Persons uninitiated in the mysteries of the 
fruit are liable to throw up their hands in horror at the vision of dyspepsia 
which such a suggestion may summon up, but no harm may come even to a 
delicate system by the eating of ripe and juicy apples before going to bed. 
The apple is excellent brain food, because it has more phosphoric acid in easily 
digested shape than any other fruits. It excites the action of the liver, pro- 
motes sound and healthy sleep, and thoroughly disinfects the mouth. This is 
not all. The apple obviates indigestion, and is one of the best known pre- 
ventives of disease of the throat. 
AMERICAN BUTTER. 
Ty commenting upon the results of the third experimental shipment of butter 
from the United States to London, under the arrangements of the Secretary of 
Agriculture, the Albany Country Gentleman says that it cost 25 cents per 1b. 
to convey the butter from Central Minnesota to London, where it was placed in 
the hands of retail dealers at 15 to 194 (74d. to 92d.) cents per 1b., its value 
