60 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Jaw., 1900. 
The juice of a lemon taken in the morning while fasting is often @ 
preventive of those attacks to which bilious people are so frequently subject. 
Lemon-juice rubbed over the hands each night before retiring will keep them 
soft and white. It is good for removing tan, and is a wonderful whitener of 
the skin. 
It is also excellent for taking out stains from the hands. Women who are 
careful of their complexions, and are fond of vinegar on certain foods, would 
do well to use a few drops of lemon-juice when any acid is desired, as vinegal 
has a bad effect on the skin. 
A piece of lemon bound on a corn, changing for a fresh piece each day for 
three days, is said to loosen the corn that it may be easily removed. Do not 
throw away bits of lenon from which the juice has been extracted, for they are 
good to keep for cleaning purposes. When the juice is not convenient, they are 
nice to rub on the hands to remoye any ink stain and other discolourations. . 
piece of lemon, dipped in salt, and rubbed briskly over a copper kettle, will give 
it a good polish. ; 
Never eat or allow to be eaten bits of lemon left standing for any length 
of time, more especially where they have so remained ina sick room. Do not 
throw away any Lane but dry it in the oven, and keep for flavouring. A 
bit of this dried peel cooked in apple sauce, or put in an apple pie, gives # 
delicious flavour that nothing else imparts.— Australian Field. 
PACKING LEMONS IN WATER. 
Fro time to time paragraphs have been printed stating that lemons and oranges 
can be kept good for long periods by being packed in damp sand. The South 
Australian Journal of Agriculture says thata citizen of Adelaide, since deceased, 
packed several hogsheads with lemons, headed them in, and filled up with rain 
water. These lemons were carried to London ina sailing ship as ordinary carga 
and arrived as fresh and full as the day they were picked. Mr. J. W. Cardon, 
of Mildura, has for two years past packed oranges in damp sand for some timé 
and out of 70 cases this season hardly 1 per cent. was spoiled. All the rest 
were perfectly sound. 
TO INCREASE THE SIZE OF MELONS. 
Tue following is said to be an excellent way of increasing the size of melons:— 
Before the melon has attained its full size, and while in a growing condition 
insert one end of a strip of fine cotton cloth, about 4-inch wide and 3 or 4 
inches long, into the stem of the melon, by splitting the stem with a sham 
knife, and place the other end of the strip into the neck of a wine-bottle fille 
with water, inclining the bottle so that the water may be absorbed by the string 
which acts as a syphon, and the end on the outside of the bottle should be ® 
little lower than that which is within the bottle, and in twenty-four hours thé 
bottle should be refilled, as the water will have been imbibed by the melon, an 
in a week or 10 days will have attained its full size. You will then withhol 
the water to give it a chance to ripen, otherwise it will be quite insipid and unfit 
to eat. 
ONIONS FOR VERMIN. 
A FARMER who, to cure vermin on stock, had to use various remedies, an 
the rest kerosene and lard, camphor dissolved in alcohol, and carbolic mix 
with lard, and all without the desired success, writes that finally he tried onions 
Of the result he says: One particular animal, a yearling bull, was very fu 
even after using the other remedies. I took a large onion, cut in two, aD 
rubbed him hard all over till I used two or more onions. The second day J 
examined him, and to my astonishment and joy the hair was full of dead insect® 
but not a live one could I find. Since then I have treated all the stock in the 
same way. 
