1 Nov., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 851 
required for home consumption only, a quick method of plucking is to plunge 
the dead fowl into boiling water. Then the feathers peel off at a touch, and the 
flights are far more easy to remove. But with regard to cooking! The 
proverb about old hens being tough is perfectly true, but the toughest fowl can 
be made tender and palatable if only boiled, or rather simmered, . long enough. 
You ean’t boil an old fowl tender; it should be placed in a saucepan just 
covered with water and set on the fire till Just on the boil, then the saucepan 
should be moved and allowed to simmer only. A bird under three years old 
can be thus boiled and then roasted; over that age it is best to be content 
with boiled fowl. But boiled fowl—old fowl] boiled—makes an excellent dish, 
and, if properly cooked, the flavour is retained and bird equal to a pullet. To 
sell a bird sealing over 5 1b. for about Is. 6d., which is about the price piven, is 
absurd, as itis worth far more than that for home consumption. Surplus cocks 
can be treated in the same way, now that the breeding pens are broken up. 
All not wanted for next season should be killed, if it has not been already 
done.— Harmer and Stockbreeder. 
The Orehard, 
DISEASE IN PINEAPPLE PLANTS. 
CARL F. GERLER, Hendra. 
Wuavr astonishes me most in this matter of the pineapple disease is that no one 
seems to have any idea as to its cause. My own opinion, based on many years’ 
experience, is that_the root of the thing lies in the want of good farming. 
There is too much of this slipshod farming carried on (especially around 
Brisbane) in Queensland. It is all very well to tickle the surface of new 
ground, and then plant, and in most cases the return will be found satisfactory ; 
but as the same land has to be worked year by year, something more than merely 
tickling will be required in order to get a fair return. A!l will agree with me 
that this disease amongst the pines makes the greatest havoc during the winter 
months, and that the strongest looking plants are more often the first attacked, 
which can, I think, be accounted for in this way: Having been planted in a 
dry season, and the site being on the side of a ridge, there are wet spots here 
and there. While the dry weather lasts the plants grow vigorously ; but let 
acold or wet winter come, and you will at once see them begin to turn 
yellow, and in a few days you can lift the whole centre of the plant out, the 
smell being very offensive, and the plant eventually dying in the ground if 
left there. I therefore give as one reason: ‘The want of deep working and 
proper draining. How is one to know when and how to drain? Certainly ~ 
not by just looking at or tickling the surface; but by working the ground 
deep, you can at once see what draining is required. Many growers suppose 
that because the pineapple is a surface-growing plant it does not require much 
draining. ‘That is a mistake, for the pine likes a warm dry soil, and where is a 
wet spot the ground is also colder. Another reason for the appearance of this 
disease is the want of using the sawdust manure with discretion and fore- 
thougbt. 
T will guarantee to kill a row of the strongest pines growing in or around 
Brisbane in less than six months by means of plenty of sawdust manure mixed 
with a little coal-ashes (this being the sole cause of disease), though it may 
not have been heard of in that district before. The first appearance of the 
