1 Ocr., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 403 
determined by means of a hygrometer and hygrometer tables. The percentage 
of moisture in the atmosphere should not vary. In the construction of the cold 
xooms it has been arranged that there should be a large air lock or lobby. This 
prevents any contact between the air of the chambers and the outside atmos- 
phere—a very important point, inasmuch as the eold air of a chamber will 
simply roll out like water unless some barrier like an airlock is there to prevent 
it. The doors opening to the air lock are never open at the same time as the 
doors of the chambers when the latter are in work. In the egg-grader, as 
represented in the second figure, the eggs are separated prior to being packed 
into four different sizes. The best are those which are too large to go under the 
first bar on the middle of the table; the second grade stop at the second bar, 
and so on. As each egg fails to go further under the bars it is lifted out into 
its proper curved apartment at the side, from which the packers take the eggs 
-when filling the boxes. 
CAUSE OF SOFT-SHELLED EGGS. 
The laying by hens of thin-shelled eggs is a sure sign that the birds require 
Jime. Some foods, such as oats and other grains, along with which the husk is 
ed, supply a considerable quantity of phosphate of lime, and thus help to make 
up for the quantity of this material required by the birds for producing the 
shells of the eggs laid by them. Other foods, however, such as potatoes and 
yoots of various kinds, supply but little of this material, and when birds are 
fed upon them to any extent lime must be obtained through some other source. 
Where birds have liberty, and can roam about a farmyard at will, they usually 
ick up a sufficiency of lime for themselves, but where they are confined to 
small enclosures, and if they have no opportunity of obtaining the necessary 
supplies of this material, arrangements must be made for supplying it. A small 
hheap of builder's rubbish or of mortar thrown in a corner will be found one of 
+he most effective and economical ways of supplying the necessary lime in cases 
of this kind. Some poultry-keepers supply the lime required by the birds in 
+he form of broken shells and crushed bone, and very excellent both are, 
pecause, in addition to supplying lime, they also help the digestion of the food 
jn the crops of the birds. The only objection to them is, they are a little more 
expensive than the mortar rubbish already referred to. 
SULPHUR AND ITALIAN PRIZES. 
The following, bearing date of Frankfort, 14th June, 1901, has been received 
from Consul-General Guenther :—German newspapers report that the agricul- 
ural societies of Italy will pay a prize of 1,000 lire (193 dollars) for a reliable 
ynethod of ascertaining the quality of sulphur and of mixtures of sulphur and 
sulphate of copper. It is pointed out that the use of sulphur against diseases 
of plants has increased very largely, but that very frequently the quality of 
the sulphur, as well as that of its mixture with sulphate of copper, is very 
juterior. The prize essays must be transmitted up to Ist March, 1902, to the 
ynain office of the Federazione Italiana dei Consorzi Agrari, at Piacenza. The 
award will be made by a special committee. Competition is entirely inter- 
iational.— California Eruitgrower. 
