IMPROVEMENT IN QUALITY. 23 



not only for domestic purposes, but for foreign demand, has 

 become an important factor among the elements of our great 

 sources of national wealth." In fact, it may be confidently 

 said, that stock-raising has a prospect before it which pre- 

 sents opportunities not only for capitalists, but for small 

 farmers, which are not surpassed by any other branch of 

 productive industry. 



The production of animals in the United States, already 

 phenomenal in its extent, is increasing every year, and it is 

 encouraging when we consider that this increase is not con- 

 fined aloue to the numbers of cattle, but appears also in 

 weight and quality. 



" The Mark Lane Express," in writing upon this point 

 says, " The improvement rapidly going on in quality alone 

 will likely double the value of the numbers quoted." 

 Another writer says, " Whatever the number, more beef is 

 produced than ever before, and, further, by better feeding, 

 the time required to bring them to maturity being reduced, 

 increases the amount." In regard to the amount of meat 

 sent abroad during the past year, it is stated that there was 

 exported, of fresh beef, fifty-four million pounds; of salt beef, 

 thirty-eight million pounds ; of preserved meats (largely 

 beef), a value of five million dollars, besides eighty thousand 

 cattle, — in round numbers three hundred thousand cattle 

 exported in a year. Almost every steamer that has left New 

 York for Liverpool during the last year has taken as a part 

 of its cargo a hundred tons, more or less, of fresh beef prop- 

 erly refrigerated. While Liverpool steamers sailing from 

 Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, also take large quanti- 

 ties of the article, so perfect has become the art of refrigera- 

 tion, that dressed cattle are now shipped from Chicago to 

 Liverpool direct. A beef creature properly subjected to the 

 conditions involved in the improved system of refrigeration 

 will keep seven or eight weeks ; and epicureans know, that, 

 the longer fresh meat can be kept perfectly sweet, the more 

 tender and juicy it becomes. 



Our English cousins enjoy, then, the privilege of buying 

 tender American beef, and, it is said, at a less price than the 

 same cuts are sold for in the American markets. Where 

 beef is shipped direct from the West to Liverpool, the rates 

 of freights are less, or lower than they otherwise would be, 



