242 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Sepr., 1898. 
TurrE is at the eastern base of the Alps (Sierra Nevada ?) much land 
subject to being destroyed by deep washing of sand, on which nothing will 
grow except melons, only two being allowed to mature on a single vine. As 
the melons are gathered they are slashed open with a big knife, and a wooden 
scoop empties the pulp into a vessel, where the juice is expressed like maple 
sugar in the Atlantic States. The sugar sells at remunerative prices, is light- 
coloured and sweet. Red-pulp melons give a dark sugar; white pulp is there- 
fore preferred. We have in this State a great area of land similarly destroyed 
every year. This sugar-melon example is commended to poor men, who can 
get the frée use of the space and proceed on small eapital.— Florida Farmer. 
EARTHWORMS AND VEGETATION. 
Proressor Wortny has conducted some experiments to ascertain what was the 
influence earthworms had on vegetation. He found that their presence was 
- extremely favourable, the produce of the several plants below being increased 
as follows :—Peas gave 25 per cent. more fruit, 35 per cent. more stalks, &c. ; 
beans gave 69 per cent. more peas in the pod, and 47 per cent. more stalks, 
&c.; while potatoes yielded 136 per cent. more. This favourable effect, says 
Professor Wollny, is probably due to the ventilation of the earth by the holes 
dug by worms. 
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF DAIRY PRODUCE. 
Tux following statistics in connection with the dairying industry show what 
rapid strides it is now making in Australia. In 1889 there were imported into 
Queensland 781,442 lb. butter, valued at £35,041; and 1,274,310 lb. cheese, 
valued at £31,853. In 1894 we imported 221,724 1b. butter, valued at £9,485 ; 
and 65,720 lb. cheese, valued at £1,543. In November last, Queensland exported 
81 tons 13 ewt. 28 lb. of butter. Victoria in that year had 200 butter factories 
and as many creameries. The returns from dairying in Victoria have risen in 
value from almost nothing, at the beginning of the present decade, to upwards 
of £1,000,000. In 1895-96 the quantity exported was 7,733 tons. This 
season upwards of 7,895 tons have been exported to England, and 2,000 tons 
to Western Australia. The value of the butter sent to England was £736,913 ; 
and of that to Western Australia £205,333. Good cows are not yet the rule 
in Victoria, but the farmers feed them in winter and make the most of them. 
Stimulated by the example of Victoria, the farmers of New South Wales have 
been making the dairy industry go ahead by leaps and bounds. The milk 
yield of the colony last year is reported to have been 108,050,000 gallons, of 
which 74,111,100 gallons were consumed in making 25,874,277 lb. of butter 
and 4,049,844 lb. of cheese. Dairying is rapidly taking the place of sugar-cane 
growing on the Northern rivers. The dairy cattle of the colony are valued at 
£2,200,000.—Bundaberg Mail. 
EGGS AS FOOD. 
Wovnp it not be wise to substitute more eggs for meat in our daily diet? 
About one-third of an egg is solid nutriment. This is more than can be said 
of meat. There are no bones, no tough pieces that have to be laid aside. A 
good egg is made up of 10 parts shell, 60 parts white, and 30 parts yolk. The 
white of an egg contains 66 per cent. water and the yolk 52 per cent. Prac- 
tically, an egg is animal food, and yet there is noue of the disagreeable work of 
the butcher necessary to obtain it. The vegetarians of England use eggs 
freely (says the Family Doctor), and many of these men are eighty and ninety 
years old, and have been remarkably free from sickness. Eggs are best when 
cooked four minutes; this takes away the animal taste which is offensive to 
some, but does not harden the white or yolk so as to make them difficult to 
digest. An egg if cooked very hard is difficult of digestion, except by those 
persons possessed of stout stomachs. Such eggs should be eaten with bread 
