292 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



ON THE PRODUCTION OF ANIMAL FOOD* 



[translated from the FRENCH OF " LE JOURNAL d'aGRICULTURE PRATiaUE."] 



No one disputes the importance of the bovine race of 

 animals, in connexion with the slaughter-house ; nor, on the 

 other liand, does anybody appear to doubt that we have 

 taken a wrong course in that great question— the produc- 

 tion of meat. 



Both the consumption increases and the price advances 

 continually. People are uneasy at this, and inquire the 

 reason, which is very simple : Production remains station- 

 ary, and is not in accordance with consumption ; and it has 

 remained stationary because it is not sufficiently profitable 

 to the agriculturist. 



The remedy for so serious a state of things is not easy of 

 application ; for, in some degree, it requires the co-operation 

 of every one, and, above all, the vigorous support of au- 

 thority, which should have the sole power of effecting a 

 reaction in the tendencies of the market. 



The most liberal encouragements lavished upon the 

 breeders of cattle would not be too much, at this time ; 

 and they should, undoubtedly, bring the consumption to 

 modify itself to something like what it is in I'^ngland, 

 which is at once more profitable to agriculture and to the 

 public health than what is taking place in France. 



In France, the number of horned cattle amounts, in 

 round numbers, to ten millions ; that of cows being four 

 millions, and of calves three millions. Of these latter they 

 kill two-and-a-half millions per annum, which do not yield 

 more than 30 kilogrammes of meat (about 66|lb.) per head. 

 We slaughter, besides, 1,500,000 head of large cattle; and 

 this total of four million head yields four hundred million 

 kilogrammes (886,070,0001b.) of meat. 



In England, with eight million head, they slaughter only 

 two million ; and that number yields five hundred million 

 kilogrammes (or 1, 107,587, 500lb.) of meat. 



Yes : in France, four million head yield four hundred 

 million kilogrammes; and in England, two million yield five 

 hundred million kilogrammes of meat. The cause is that, in 

 England, they kill neither so many calves nor so many old. 

 oxen ; and it is this correct and skilfol proportion that 

 gives them an economic position much superior to that of 

 France in this respect. 



The first and most important of the encouragements to 

 be given for the production of cattle is, an entire change in 

 the present customs of the slaughter-house. " Freedom," they 

 say, is aboitt to succeed monopoly in the great market of 

 Paris, and to respond to the incessant and just complaints 

 of the consumers ; which is good news. The freedom of 

 the slaughter-house is as useful to agriculture as to the 

 consumer ; for it will suppress a part of those intermediaries 

 who absorb too large a share of the price, and cause the 

 consumer to pay too dear for the meat, whilst the producer 

 sells it too cheap, and is, consequently, disgusted with the 

 market produce. 



Let us judge of this by the following statement, which is 

 taken from official documents, and which shows that the aver- 

 age price of an ox weighing 350 kilogrammes (7751b.) of net 

 meat is 314f. (£13 Is. 8d.), or per kilogramme 89c. to 90c 

 (or about 4d. per lb.) Certainly, there is a considerable dis- 

 tance between this price and the selling price of meat ; and if, 

 as ought in justice to be the case, the greatest part of it 

 accrued to the grazier, his advantage would be a powerful en- 

 couragement to production. But, besides the indispensable 

 intermediation of the butchers, there are others of all sorts. 

 There is the Pay Office of Poissy, which charges, besides an 

 interest of five per cent, upon the loan granted to the butcher, 

 a municipal right of 3c. ; which led M. Chale to say, in his 

 deposition before the Parliamentary Inquiry made in 1851 : 

 " The Pay Office of Poissy is an instrument with which the 

 city of Paris takes l,400,000f. from the pockets of the agri- 

 culturists, under the pretext of ensuring their payments, which 



• Taken from the second edition of " The Principal Bovine 

 Races of France, England, and Switzerland," hy the Marquis 

 of Damplerre. 



they do not ensure at all." Next, there is the town due of 

 2c. per kilogramme, and the abattoir tax of rather more than 

 7c., making in all 15c. 3^ milles. 



But still this is not all. There is, in consequence of the 

 law which makes it imperative to bring all the animals to the 

 markets of Sceaux and Poissy, intended for the supply of 

 Pans, at least one purchaser at first baud, who forms the 

 groups of cattle, and conducts them to the privileged market; 

 but there are more frequently two, three, and even four inter- 

 mediate dealers, whose exactions are not less than from 10c. 

 to 15c. per kilogramme each. There are also the commis- 

 sioners near the same markets ; the guides, to show the 

 way from Sceaux to Poissy, and from Poissy to Sceaux ; the 

 hay-merchant ; and the lodging-house-keeper : and all these 

 people have their share of the benefit that the consumer ought 

 to pay to the producer. It also raises the price of meat from 

 6c. to 8c. per kilogramme, on the average. 



I am aware that all these middle-men cannot be suppressed, 

 but they may be considerably reduced in number ; aud they 

 ought to be placed on a well-understood footing. Nor can 

 the production of cattle make any important advance whatever 

 until the agriculturist shall be fully satisfied and secured in 

 this respect. 



Light breaks in on every side, and the most interesting 

 publications are applying the torch to those questions which 

 the interest of the Paris butchers hold in voluntary obscurity. 

 Documents abound ; and we can obtain from them a know- 

 ledge of abuses of all kinds, which ignorance alone of the facts 

 has suffered to exist to the present time. 



It is to the parliamentary inquiry commenced in 1851 — 

 which the political events of that period prevented from being 

 completed — to which is due the merit of the deep investiga- 

 tion of this question. The documents collected at that period 

 are the basis and starting-point of all the publications which 

 have since been issued. They display such a character of 

 honesty and truth, that we have felt secure in quoting them ; 

 and they are found continually under the pen of every writer. 

 One of these, amongst others, M. E. Blanc, in his " Mysteries 

 of the Butchery," supports by that authority the result of his 

 personal works. M. Blanc does not draw conclusions in favour 

 of freedom ; he would substitute one monopoly for another. 

 But his statements are, nevertheless, interesting aud instruc- 

 tive; and I shall borrow from him some of great importance. 

 The price of beef at Paris, in 1820, was from 55 to 60 cents, 

 per pound ; in 1841, according to the report of M. Boulay 

 de la Meurthe to the Municipal Council, 70 cents. ; and it has 

 successively risen from that time to 100 and 104 cents, (or 

 lOd. to lOd. l-25th per pound) — an increase of 90 per cent, in 

 thirty-six years, and that in spite of all the efforts of the Ad- 

 ministration to reduce the price of meat, and a multitude of 

 opposite measures contradictory and incessantly reviving, 

 with the view of remedying the evil. " He has been assured 

 that the butchers of Paris could sell meat retail at 10 cents, 

 less per kilogramme than they purchase it, on account of the 

 skin and other proceeds." — [Parliamentary Enquiry (French) 

 of 1851, vol. i. p. 32). Now, the mean course of the ave- 

 rages of the markets this year (1857) quotes meat at 1 franc 

 40 cents. (Is. 2d.), and this price is imaginary — " because the 

 butchers have an interest in raisiug fictitiously the price of 

 live cattle, in order to justify them iu selling dearer by retail." 

 — [Report of M. Boulay de la Meurthe, 1841.] 



Let U9, however, accept the quotation of 1 franc 40 cents. ; 

 the average retail selling price has been 1 franc 98 cents., or 58 

 cents. (5f d.) inore than the cost price, instead of 10 cents, less. 



The following is, under another form, the biitcher's 

 amount : — f. c. 



Cost price of meat 1 40 



Selling price, 



{Ketail price. . . . 

 Skin and other 

 proceeds .... 

 Profit 



1 98- 

 34. 



2 32 

 92ctf. 



