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324, QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 ApRIlt, 1900. 
FOOD SUPPLIES FROM AUSTRALIA. ia 
Tux Scottish Farmer says that Australia seems likely to be a formidable soure 
of food supplies for this country during 1900. It is expected that she will sen ue 
24,000,000 bushels of wheat, and Victoria alone means to send us 30,000,000 b. 
of butter. The texture and mildness of Australia cheese are spoken of as 
causes of its popularity amongst all classes of the community, and there 
likely to be plenty of demand for this cheese, as existing stocks of Englis 
cheese are reported short. So far as Scots cheese is concerned, Lhe Groc 
expects that the price will advance early in the year, and nobody will be soy: 
In spite of all the efforts of the factories, the same authority declares 1 
farmers’ produce in cheese maintains its own position, and this is reassuring, i 
view of all that has been advanced. Truth to tell, the farmers who in t ie 
days get poor prices for their cheese have themselves to blame. The means ¥0 
improving the quality are at their hands, and they have no excuse if they pe™* 
in producing an inferior article. 
BUTTONS MADE OF MILK. 
THoseE creamy-looking white buttons which you see street hawkers in London 
offering you at twelve for a penny, one of which youmay wear on yours r 
collar, are made of milk. The milk is that which has become sour at the late 
dairies. It is sent to three large manufactories in the East End of London, ™ 
there churned very much after the manner of making cheese, into buttons. 
This cheese is then put under enormous pressure until every drop of nae 
ture is wrung from it, when it is passed into a chemically heated room. if 
then, while under great heat, bleached white and flattened out, ready to 
punched into the required shapes. cet 
It is found that buttons can be made in this way at less than half the © 
entailed in manufacturing bone ones, and, besides never rubbing away, 40? 
turn their colour. : 
DESTRUCTION OF RATS. 
Mr. P. R. Gorpon, Chief Inspector of Stock, gives the following simple method 
which, according to American papers, has been most successful in clearing ™ 
off premises where previously they had defied the presence of from twent, i 
thirty cats :—Get a few small pieces of shingles or thin boards. On eae! 
these put a teaspoonful of molasses, and over this scrape a small amount i 
condensed lye, and lay the boards or shingles around the rat holes, or wherey 
their runs are. The molasses will draw them, and the lye will eat out 
coating of their stomachs. Four days are given as the time when the rats Me 
haye been cleared out. From the fact that this mode of destruction tbs 
appeared, at intervals, in many well-conducted journals in the States, for MOM, 
past, Mr. Gordon is induced to think it is well worth a trial here. ‘The re“? 
is simple, cheap, and easy to carry into effect. 
KILLING AND CURING MEATS. P 
W 
WE have given from time to time receipts for curing meat, which we kne ‘ 
be good. But there is always one way a little better than another, and we ¥ it 
impressed with the following contributed to the Times Union and Citizen by 
Burdett, of Marion county :-— of 
To Cure Bacon or Corn Beef.—For every 100 Ib. of meat take 6 gallon® 
water, 3 lb. of brown sugar, 9 lb. of pure salt (rock or solar salt is safest), 14 
of good molasses, 8 oz. of saltpetre, 1 oz. of soda. Boil water and salt 
and then add the other ingredients, and skim off all the impurities. Pack 
in a good barrel as well as possible, and when the brine is cool pour it ove! 
as to cover the meat entirely and weight it down to keep it from the air. 
three or four weeks it can be smoked and then packed in a barrel with ¢ 
wood ashes to keep out all insects. 
Jea? 
Aftet 
