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3808 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Sepr., 1901. 
the improvement to be quite as fast as they will learn how to manage them. 
When dairymen say that they find the Jersey does not do well in their district, 
they simply accuse themselves of bad management. The Jersey has definitely 
established its capacity to do well in every country, and to endure all climates 
and conditions, oe the coldest climates to the very tropics. Under any 
circumstances the Jersey cows are able to hold their own with any of their 
competitors. They accommodate themselves to climatic conditions with as 
_ much readiness as man himself, but, like man, they want proper shelter, care, 
and proper feed. 
DEHORNING CATTLE. 
There are many kind-hearted people who look upon the dehorning of 
cattle as a most cruel performance. But have they had any experience in the 
operation? We grant that dehorning, as was practised on a station in the 
Gulf country, was atrocious cruelty. There, the blacks employed on the station 
dehorned the beasts by simply smashing off the horns with long waddies. But 
there are methods of dehorning which are either absolutely painless, so far as 
young steers and heifers are concerned, or of even less painful nature, in the 
case of milking cows, than the extraction of a tooth from a human being. 
It is absolute kindness to dehorn young cattle. It may be done, as we 
chave often described, by the application of caustic potash to the embryo horn 
of the calf of two or three months old. The only danger is that the operator 
may not exercise sufficient care to prevent the liquid running into the eyes of 
the animal and causing thus intense pain and loss of eyesight. As far as the 
destruction of the horn is concerned, there is practically little pain. A better 
method comes to us from the Florida Agriculturist :—That is with a brandin 
iron. This is the method:—Screw a three-quarter nut on to the end o 
an iron rod, heat it red hot and press it only for an instant, with 
a firm sure hand—holding the calf securely—on the little cone or embryo 
horn, and the work is done. This is for very young animals. When the calf 
is from two to four months old, file sharp a_pair of blacksmith’s pinchers, and 
with one snip the little button can be clipped off clean from the surface. Apply 
grease and tar in either case, renew it perhaps once or twice, and the operation 
is done. In the case of very young calves, the little fellows will be playin 
around in 5 minutes, apparently unconscious of the operation. Experience 
Florida stockmen, however, contend that it is better to defer the operation of 
dehorning until the animal is two or three years old. If the animal is dehorned 
when very young and grows up a “muley,” it learns to butt to some extent, 
and is more inclined to break fences and creep through into inclosures. If 
dehorned when nearly grown, the operation cows it completely, the unruly 
disposition is subdued, there is no more fighting or hectoring of its fellows- 
The idea that cows shrink in their milk yield is wholly erroneous. They may 
drop off slightly for two or three days, but they soon recover. The yield is 
increased, if anything, for the dehorned animal is quiet, docile, and spends more 
time in grazing and less in lording it over his fellows. 
A REVOLUTION IN CHEESE-MAKING. 
It has hitherto been believed that certain bacteria are largely responsible 
for the proper curing of cheese. This theory would appear to be exploded if it 
be correct, as was lately announced by Superintendent Henry, of the United 
States Experiment Station, that Professors Russell and Babcock had made a 
discovery which would effect a revolution in cheese-making. That discovery is, 
that bacteria have no part in successful cheese-curing, but that it is due to the 
secretion by the cow, with the milk, of a fluid called galactose. This is what 
cures the cheese, and which also admits of cheese being cured better at low 
