Nc. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 531 



very firm and the hardening of the fat is what gives firmness to the 

 carcass. The fat mixed through the lean when hardened down 

 gives firmness to the carcass. You take a side of beef from a poor 

 steer where there is no fat and it is impossible to harden it except 

 by freezing. Cooling them down does not give them that firm, 

 solid condition that we look for in good beef. The muscles slip 

 back and forth and are soft and slimy and you cannot harden them. 

 The mixture of the fat through the lean also is important. For 

 proper finish we like to find the fat well mixed through the lean, 

 a good mixture of fat ; but this does not mean fat in there in bunches, 

 the way it would be more apt to be in the dairy breeds if put in here, 

 but marbled through as the butchers term it, or mixed through in 

 small particles, splashes of fat mixed in through or flaked in; and 

 a proper marbling mixture of the fat through the lean is necessary 

 for finished beef. 



Now I will try to get some of these cuts in shape (showing) so 

 that you have a chance t« look at them and see just how they show 

 up. Now, in comparing these two ribs cuts from the two steers, 

 these two cuts made in the same place show you quite a fine com- 

 parison of the two. The larger rib cut there is from the big steer, 

 the white faced steer, as they stood before you in the ring yester- 

 day, and comparing these two you can see a marked difference in the 

 amount of fat covering around the surface of the lean meat there. 

 This one here has a very small covering and the lean through the 

 eye — this round muscle is the eye — is not nearly so thick on the rib 

 and has not so much fat mixed through the lean, and the eye here 

 while a well developed eye and good piece of lean meat is not so 

 nicely marbled and finished, not showing the mixture of fat through 

 the lean that the other one shows. Now this cut here is finished very 

 nicely. There is a nice mixture of fat through the lean, marbling 

 through the lean, and we have a good layer of fat over the surface. 

 That is just a little bit more fat on there than desirable in most mar- 

 kets. For high class trade such a cut in large cities like New York and 

 Chicago, this one here would be exactly what they look for and 

 the butcher and retailer could handle this to a very good advan- 

 tage. For the ordinary retailer though one which has not quite 

 so much fat more like this one here would meet the demands of a 

 great many. The most of the retail dealers in the small towns 

 where there is not a high class special trade would not like that. 

 Of course, this one here is without doubt the best cut, has the best 

 flesh, the best quality of the two, but the reailer could not afford 

 to handle this one in a great many cases because he could not get 

 the price for it as he would have to trim off and he would not be 

 catering to a high class trade enough to afford to trim off this one. 

 A mixture of fat thrugh the lean shows that it is finished. 



In finishing cattle the priming up is to improve the quality of 

 the meat, not to increase the size of the animal or weight so much 

 as the quality. The weight is produced in growing and quality 

 another man very often buys them up as feeders and finishes them 

 improved by finishing. The feeder generally grows the animal and 

 another man very often buys them up as feeders and finishes them 

 and the work he carries out is to improve the quality. A mixture 

 of fat through the lean improves the quality of the meat by making 

 it tender and more juicy and increases what the chemist calls soluble 



