216 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1902. 
General Notes. 
SPRAY FOR NOXIOUS WEEDS. 
Mr. George Valder, Principal of the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, — 
has been making experiments with arsenite of soda for the purpose of destroying 
noxious weeds, such as prickly pear, blackberries, &c. He finds that a solution 
of 1 lb. of the chemical to 8 quarts of cold water to be very effective. The 
spray will kill every living plant on the ground, and where the spray falls 
nothing will grow for quite a month. Hence it is greatly to be recommended 
for garden walks. 
THE “LAWTON PROCESS” OF FRUIT-PRESERVING. 
A shipment of bananas from Central America and Jamaica by the R.M.S. 
“ Para,” the fruit being preserved by the ‘“ Lawton Process,” turned out most 
successful, although carried out under exceptionally trying conditions. The 
success of this process will enable delicate fruit taken almost ripe to be carried 
from the ends of the earth to London, with safety ; still Jamaica has always the 
advantage of being many days nearer to Great Britain than Australia or India. 
—Journal of the Jamaica Agricultural Society. 
REMEDY FOR COLDS, CUTS, BRUISES, SCALDS, &c. 
Mr. Gorton gives us a remedy, a sort of universal remedy, for various. 
ailments to which bush people are liable. ; 
To a small bottle of castor oil add a large cake of camphor, breaking the 
camphor up. It soon dissolves. If used at the first sign of a cold on children 
or grown-ups, it will stop it. Rub itin well with the hand on the chest and 
back, between the shoulders, round the throat, and rub a little on the temples 
and the nose at bedtime. 
Although whole families were suffering badly from influenza in the 
immediate neighbourhood, Mr. Gorton’s children never had cold or cough. 
The remedy is also invaluable for cuts, nail wounds (the camphor seems to kill 
the poison), bruises, scalds, burns, and last, but certainly not least, 
rheumatism. 
For bites and stings, kerosene is a simple and effective remedy. 
RABBITS IN ENGLAND. 
Few Australian farmers have any idea of the extent of the rabbit pest in the 
old country. The Queensland rabbit has not as yet invaded the large farming 
districts, whatever the hare may have done. In Devonshire it is no uncommon 
thing to kill 3,000 rabbits on a 250-acre farm in a single year. This means 
7,680 on a 640-acre farm. Yet the farmers are prohibited by law from shooting 
them, and the only means of keeping them down is trapping. On many farms 
in North Wales, we haye seen rabbits in hundreds nibbling at the crops in every 
field. Ferrets are largely employed to drive them out of their burrows into 
nets set at the mouth of the burrow, but where the rodents are as numerous as 
in parts of Devonshire the burrows are so large that the ferrets cannot drive 
them out. Let us hope that it will be long before the Downs or any other 
farmers are handicapped in like manner. 
