No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 520 



hung up before you it would be possible to show something about 

 the difference in conformation, the difference in shape of these sides, 

 but not having any place to hang them up it is impossible to do that, 

 but perhaps 1 can show you on the cuts when we come to the cuts. 

 The round should be very full, the thigh full and tieshy. If you 

 compare heifers with steers, in the round the steer always shows 

 fleshier and more compact round, while the heifer's is inclined to 

 be thin and incurving. The round should be fleshy down onto the 

 hock. The meat should run down to the hock so that the shank 

 is very short, so that there is very little shank not covered with 

 meat. The loin should be full and smooth, showing no depression 

 on either side of the backbone, but rather tilled out full and rounded, 

 showing that the carcass should have on bunches of flesh, plenty 

 of loin meat and make a nice thick loin cut when you come to cut 

 up for steaks. The ribs should show some conformation, well sprung 

 from the back, not a sloping side or flat and not sprung out too 

 full so that we have flesh over the ribs. We want them well arched 

 out from the back so that you find a good "eye," a good large 

 amount of loin when you come to rip them down. This is what the 

 butcher calls the "eye" of the beef. When you come to rip the side, 

 rip them doAvn, cut oft" the fore quarter from the hind quarter, you 

 expose this muscle. That is called the "eye." And as the carcass 

 hangs from the side we like to find the flesh full and thick on the 

 hip and not sloping off, so that they will show a thick, full muscle. 

 Of course, the thickness there is sometimes deceiving and while 

 the carcass may look good in the side when you come to cut they 

 may not be as thick as you expected and the knife is the only safe 

 index to follow. You may be easily deceived by external appear- 

 ance. 



The shape of the front quarter is important. The butcher likes 

 to have the chuck well developed, thick, not heavy and showing too 

 much weight in the front quarter, but should be thick and com- 

 pact. The neck should be short, as little neck as possible, and on 

 prime steers there should be practically no neck. This is an inferior 

 cut and the butcher does not care about much of that. The least 

 neck the better. 



The next point after considering the form or shape of the carcass 

 would be to consider the covering of fat. Now, for finished beef to 

 have the prime quality it is necessary to have a very good cover- 

 ing of fat all over the body and completely covering it. The cover- 

 ing as shown on this best steer, when you come to look at these 

 cuts I will show you there is quite a difference in the extent of the 

 covering, the completeness of the covering of fat. A good layer 

 of fat all over the body, as complete a covering as possible, is de- 

 sirable in order for meat to hang in the coolers and ripen, in fact, 

 it is necessary. A high class trade desires meat that is left to 

 hang in the coolers to ripen and for meat to be properly ripened 

 in the coolers this complete covering of fat is necessary. Poor 

 cattle, where that covering is lacking, will not hang in the coolers 

 and stay in good shape. They become soft and slimy and you 

 cannot hang them any length of time before they spoil ; but cattle 

 well covered could hang in the cooler for any reasonable length of 

 time and still be all right, and the ripening would increase and 



34—7—1910 



