1 Ocr., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 895: 
RIPENING CREAM. 
A method of ripening cream has been invented by an eminent Danish. 
bacteriologist, Mr. A. Zafiman. ‘The cream is directly fermented with a pure: 
ie perncion of bacteria, which causes all cream to sour in such a way that the’ 
utter obtains the very best taste and flavour, and enables it to keep fresh for a 
long period. By this new method of ripening the cream direct, it is said to be 
possible absolutely. to prevent any deterioration in the butter from one day to. 
another.—Engineer. 
A. ROUGH METHOD OF TESTING BUTTER SAMPLES, 
Procure a few ordinary glass tubes from your chemist, costing, perhaps, 
#d.each. Introduce into each an equal quantity, or thereabouts, of the butters: 
to be tested, and insert them all in boiling water. After thoroughly heating, 
which causes the fat to melt, leave the tube undisturbed for a time, and then 
take them out and compare them with each other. The fat, being the lightest, 
collects in the top of the tubes, next will come a whitish layer of caseine, or: 
curdy matter, and lastly, as the water is heaviest, we find it as the bottom: 
layer. Now some butters contain more water and caseine than others. It 
may be taken that the less caseine and water present generally the better the 
butter. If a large proportion of caseine be present, the butter does not keep. 
so well. Excess of water, of course, means that water is being passed off and 
sold as butter, when it ought not to be. The aim of the butter-maker should 
be to minimise the proportion of caseine, but not to wash the butter for this. 
purpose too much, which would be done at the expense of the flavour.—Cadle.. 
THE WATER HYACINTH PEST. 
We have received from Mr. Walter Draper, Superintendent of the- 
Government Gardens at the Barrage, Egypt, the following interesting notes on 
the destruction of the water hyacinth. He says :—It is perfectly hopeless to 
attempt the destruction of the pest during the growing season. Waterways. 
may, of course, be cut through for navigation, but cutting only assists its 
propagation, and the danger of infecting clean districts by floating plants is very 
considerable. Nothing but a serious outlay, coupled with a thoroughly 
_ systematic plan of destruction in the control of competent hands, will clear- 
your State of the pest ; and the longer the delay, the greater will be the difficulty 
and cost of eradication. From personal observation in Egypt, T find that one- 
plant will cover ten times its area during one growing period. In my opinion, 
the best time to operate in its final destruction is during the season when the 
plants are dormant—when every hundred plants then destroyed means a 
thousand less in the following year. The technical part would be in preventing 
cleaned districts from again becoming infected, which would mean labour lost, 
as red spider cannot be trusted to do the work. 
Mr. Draper kindly offers to furnish a report on two practical methods by 
which he thinks the pest might be cleaned out of the State. 
We cannot depend upon floods or freshes for removing masses of hyacinth, 
such as once occurred in the Upper Brisbane River. Besides, the pest has in 
_ Imany parts spread over the roadside watertables and into paddocks and water-. 
holes not reached by floods.. Any scheme for its removal will, therefore, be 
gladly welcomed, and we shall await with much interest Mr. Draper’s promised. 
| Teport. 
