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1 Mar., 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 175 
cut off. The bandage may be placed in before cutting in curd, and turned over 
the top edge of the hoop to hold in while filling; use a round piece of cotton 
cloth at each end of the cheese. I would not advise any cheap, uncertain 
method of pressing; a 14-inch screw set in a frame, with means of turning ; or 
send to a dairy supply house and get a press. If sufficient pressure is not 
applied the rind will not form, and the whole job will be a failure. After 
pressing an hour, take out, adjust the bandage smooth and cover the edges 
nicely, put on cap cloths of same material, with the cotton press cloths on top, 
and} at the bottom the same; put on a closely-fitting follower, put to press 
again, and keep it there until the following day. Then take it out and cure in 
a room from 60 to 65 degrees for three weeks. If you have not slipped 
a cog somewhere, the cheese will be presentable and eatable. From an economic 
standpoint, however, the job will be a failure. An equal amount of cheese can 
be purchased much cheaper of some reliable manufacturer or dealer—quality 
guaranteed. 
REMEDY FOR A SELF-SUCKING COW. 
Material required—a halter, a surcingle, and a piece of wood about 3 feet 
long. Put the cow in the bail. Fasten one end of the piece of wood to it by 
a piece of chain. , Put on the halter and lash the other end of the wood to’ the 
surcingle. After adjusting the latter, pass the wood between the cow’s front 
legs, then buckle up the surcingle. The cow can feed and lie down without 
difficulty. Put this arrangement on when the cow has a first calf; and when 
she is dry, take it off till she comes in with another one. 
This suggestion comes from Mr. J. Howard, Beelbi Creek, Howard, 
A BRIAR AND BLACKBERRY BUSH DESTROYER. 
Mr. H. W. Potts, F.C.S., F.L.S., editor of the Journal of Agriculture of 
Victoria, in a short article under the above heading, mentions an experiment 
made some years ago by the manager of a South Gippsland butter factory. 
At the ordinary Fak testing of the suppliers’ milk samples by the 
Babcock method, a quantity of sulphuric acid is employed, as much as 
half-a-gallon in many cases during the day. When the tests are completed, a 
quantity of partially-exhausted sulphuric acid is left in the flasks, and the usual 
practice is to throw it away. The practical mind of the manager in question 
suggested the utilisation of this waste product in the direction of killing briars 
and such like. The factory paddock of 4 acres was wholly occupied with this 
growth. He experimented on it by throwing half-a-pint of the waste 
sulphuric acid, so as to flow down the centre of the stem of the plant to the 
main root. In the course of a few days each bush withered, became dry, and 
formed a mass readily destroyed by fire. In six months the paddock was 
cleared with the greatest ease, and the manager now enjoys the privilege of 
grazing a horse in a paddock formerly taken up by this impenetrable, thorny, 
and useless shrub. Hundreds of gallons of sulphuric acid are allowed to go to 
waste yearly at our butter factories, and in numerous instances this might be 
collected in demijohns or Winchester quart stoppered-bottles and distributed to 
milk suppliers, with suitable directions and precautions, to act as a blackberry 
and briar destroyer. 
The writer does not mention prickly pear, but it is probable that at least 
young prickly pear bushes might be destroyed in the same manner ; and if so, 
uantities of sulphuric acid could be obtained from the Queensland butter 
tories and utilised in like manner. We are anxiously awaiting the advent 
of the man who can prove his claim to the reward of £5,000 offered by the 
Queensland Department of Agriculture to anyone who can devise a cheap, 
speedy, and effective means of destroying that pest, the prickly pear. 
