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1 Szpr., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 321 
the trigger-post G, and let it—the post—be three-quarter the height. Let H be 
the strongest piece, as it has to bear the weight of all the loading. The piece F 
is the slightest, with the stoutest end to the right hand of the trap, as shown in 
Hig. 1. In preparing the trigger see sketch No. 2 enlarged, and mate the pieces 
in proportion as shown in sketch No. 1, and it will be evident that the slightest 
pressure on I is sufficient to disengage it at the catch 1 when the B, with its 
loading, collapses on to the intruder. a 
Sometimes the traps may be neglected for a time, and dead vermin lie in 
them till they decompose. In this case, do not reset the trap immediately, but 
put a prop under the fallpiece to keep it up, and bury the trigger pieces for a 
week to sweeten them, so that the vermin may accustom themselves to the track 
again. In placing the trap in position, it should be arranged so that the part F 
on the trigger comes in the centre of the track, or hole, in any fence, and 
the load-bearers, D D, should be so arranged as not to come in contact with any 
obstruction when they fall on the vermin, or the latter may make their escape. 
The loading can be made as heavy as circumstances seem to require. 
As logs are rather scarce in some parts of the country, a flat-shaped boulder 
may be fixed up to give weight. The trigger, or acting portion of the trap, is on 
the principle of the old-fashioned figure of four trap, of which a correspondent 
writes, his grandfather always had a number about his garden to keep the mice 
down, and keep them down they did, for a pretty large flat stone was used for 
the purpose. 
WEIGHT OF CATTLE. 
To estimate the weight of cattle by measurement, measure the eirth close 
behind the shoulder and the length’ from the forepart of the shoulder-blade 
along the back to the bone at the tail, which is in a vertical line with the 
buttock, both in feet. Multiply the square of the girth, expressed in feet, by 
five times the length, and divide the product by 21, the quotient is the weight, 
nearly, of the four quarters, in imperial stones of 14 1b. avoirdupois. When the 
- cattle are very fat the four quarters will be about one-tenth more, while in very 
lean cattle they will be one-twentieth less than the weight obtained by the rule. 
HOW TO KEEP BUTTER HARD WITHOUT ICE. 
Is there anything so distressing during summer months to the neat housewife 
as oily butter? Nothing, unless it is flies, and these she can dispense with by 
care and patience. Oily butter makes any carefully prepared table disreputable 
in appearance, to say nothing of the unpalatable result. There are many who 
are inaccessible to ice-dealers ; fewer still who enjoy the luxury of a private ice- 
house. How to have hard butter without ice is a problem all have not solved, 
The remedy for soft butter is as economical as simple. Purchase an 8 or 
10 inch common, unglazed flowerpot. Wash ditoranedilkg in clear water, then 
let it stand for an hour submerged in as cold well-water as can be procured. 
When saturated, drain a few minutes by turning the pot upside down. Prepare 
your butter on a plate a few hours before meal-time. Fit a cork into the hole 
in bottom of the pot to exclude all hot air. Place the pot over the butter, and set 
on stone cellar floor. The result will be most satisfactory. If the butter is not 
as hard as when placed on ice, it will retain its form and be hard enough for 
enjoyable use.—Pacific Rural Press. 
SEED-SOWING EXTRAORDINARY. 
Here is a wrinkle for those who believe in sowing grasses— English and other- 
wise—broadcast over their runs, and one that is said to have worked like a 
charm. The gentleman who first hit on the notion had a lot of tins with 
perforated bottoms, and filled with grass-seed, affixed to the necks of milkers 
and other quiet cattle. Of course these, whilst feeding, shook the seeds out, 
with the result that to-day, all over his run, English grasses are to be found in 
abundance.— Exchange. 
