392 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Nov., 1898. 
CURING SMALLPOX. 
WE have heard of many simple cures for the various ills that flesh is heir to, 
but for complete simplicity the following takes the lead. It should be worth 
atrial. Fortunately the experience cannot be gained in Queensland :—It is 
said the worst case of smallpox can be effectually cured in three days simply 
by cream of tartar. ‘This is the sure and never-failing remedy : One ounce of 
cream of tartar dissolved in a pint of boiling water, to be drunk when cold at 
short intervals. It can be taken at any time, and is a preventive as well asa 
curative. It is known to have cured thousands of cases without a failure. It 
never leaves a mark, never causes blindness, and always prevents tedious 
lingering. 
PROTECTION OF ANIMALS FROM FLIES. 
DATURA STRAMONIUM (THORN APPLE) AS A PREVENTIVE TO FLIES. 
CoMparaTIVE experiments by Hassekieff, in Bulgaria, with tobacco juice, the 
juice of Daphne mesereum, and a decoction of Datura stramonium.(a Wuropean 
annual which has become naturalised about Queensland towns), have shown 
that this last is superior to others, and that a single application of the decoction 
to the exposed parts preserves the animal during the day against the bot and 
other flies.— Bulgarian Journal of Veterinary Medicine. 
BARBED WIRE AND HIDES. 
WE should be pleased to learn that barbed wire for dividing fences was done 
away with. Itis all very well for a boundary fence where there are stray 
cattle, but what common-sense person would partition off his calf and horse 
paddocks with this hide-destroying, horse-killing abomination? Look at any 
dairy where barbed wire is used in the yards; then go and examine the cows, 
You will find valuable cows with lacerated teats, cows and calves with torn 
hides, other animals hardly able to walk, owing to getting a foot through this 
wire. If only from a selfish instead of a humanitarian point of view, the 
barbed wire curse should be put an end to. The hides of cattle torn by it are 
depreciated in value. Fat beasts badly injured soon become poor, and 
hundredweights of wool are annually lost in the fences. ‘To run a horse 
against a stout barbed-wire fence is almost sure to end in the animal’s death, 
And still barbed wire is used. 
_ AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SHOWS. 
Te Editor will be glad if the secretaries of Agricultural and other Societies 
will, as early as possible after the fixture of their respective shows, notify him 
of the date, and also of any change in date which may have been decided on, 
