268 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



of Agriculture in 1866, and one of the first things that came 

 prominently to my attention was this matter of sheep and 

 dogs. 



Many of you are old enough to know that back at that time 

 a great deal of slaughtering was done in Connecticut. Sheep 

 and cattle were slaughtered here. This great business of 

 slaughtering cattle in the west did not grow up until the great 

 plains, containing the vast pastures of the west, were opened 

 up, and that did not happen until just after the building of the 

 Union Pacific Railroad. That was away back in 1870. To be 

 exact, I believe the last spike in the last tie of that road was 

 driven sometime in 1869. At that time there were no cattle 

 shipped from the great plains, and there were no great 

 abattoirs in Kansas City and Omaha, and other great western 

 centers. There were no great herds of sheep there. For, as 

 some of you will recollect, herds of buffalo were common upon 

 the western plains at that time, and in some instances abso- 

 lutely stopped the trains. When that railroad was opened 

 gradually there came a great change. That threw New Eng- 

 land into competition with the western country, and because 

 cattle could be brought here, and because of the inventions 

 which made the transportation of meat practicable. New Eng- 

 land and other eastern farmers could not maintain their posi- 

 tion. Prior to that time there was no icing machinery that 

 was in use anywhere in the north. I think there were but one 

 or two attempts to use it until after the war. The first ones 

 were started in the southern states during the war. Now 

 when this condition started in and the preservation of meat 

 was made practicable, so that it could be transported in good 

 condition for long distances, slaughtering of cattle and sheep 

 gradually died out in the east. I cannot give the precise 

 figures, but at the time the slaughtering of lambs was a great 

 deal of a business in this section. A great many were imported 

 from Canada. I do not know whether I have the figures ac- 

 curately in mind, but I have in mind there were some twenty 



