954 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



"In the year 1877, 38,466 cattle, 20,773 sheep. 



"In the year 1878, 56,850 cattle, 45,641 sheep, 2,219 pigs. 



"The shipments for the year 1878 are not complete, as we wiU ship 

 about 1,500 more cattle, 1,200 sheep, and 600 pigs, before the 1st of 

 January, 1879. 



"As to our method of carrying these meats you understand perfectly. 

 We shipped very light of dressed meat during the summer months of 

 1878, as the large shipments of live cattle interfered with dressed meats, 

 which we think will be the case in the summer of 1879. We will ship 

 for the next four months an average of about 1,800 cattle, 2,200 sheep, 

 and 600 pigs weekly, but will reduce our shipments very much about 

 the first of April, and ship heavily of live cattle during the warm season. 



"We commenced this business in a small way on the start, and have 

 increased from time to time till our outlay in refrigerator boxes and 

 machinery has amounted to $175,000. I shipped the first beef that was 

 shipped to Europe as an article of commerce. In fact, all small experi- 

 mental shipments, which amounted to very little, were failures." 



What Mr. Eastman has done for meat others can do with fish, and I 

 am informed that Mr. Eugene Blackford shipped American salmon some 

 years since, the only drawback to the business being the want of cold 

 storage to keep the fish in good order in London. 



On the 4th of May, 1870, the Baltimore and Texas Steam Transporta- 

 tion Comjjany was organized, and in its prospectus it is stated that 

 fresh beef, mutton, and game had been conveyed from London to Eio 

 in the steamer Eio de Janeiro fitted with the Tellier machine, and after a 

 voyage of 21 days they were found in perfect condition. During said trip, 

 and whilst on the equator and in its vicinity, the temperature in the 

 refrigerating-room was kept at from 32° to 33° Fahr., while outside it 

 ranged from 105° to 107°, and the water itself stood at 80° to 90°. 



On the 6th of December, 1870,* M. Ch. Tellier addressed a note to 

 the Academy of Sciences relating that he had kept rooms at 0° C, or at 

 most at — 1° C, and had preserved beef, mutton, game (with fur, feathers, 

 and entrails), and fish for seven and nine weeks. He said : "What I em- 

 ploy is a current of cold air, below 0° C, or currents of liquids between 

 — 8° C. and — 10°. • • • A slight and gentle desiccation amounting to 

 10 per cent, of the weight of meats in six weeks is attended with preservation 

 of the product." The abstraction of 18 or 20 per cent, of the moisture 

 at low temperatures in vacuo will cure meats. In a second note addressed 

 to the Academy of Sciences on the 27th of December, 1870, M. TeUier 

 says that he first attempted desiccation in vacuo in 1867. By the aid 

 of chloride of calcium a piece of meat was made to lose 25 per cent, of 

 its moisture. Pasteur had recognized that from 25° to 40° C. (from 77° 

 to 104° Fahr.) was the niost favorable range of temperature for putre- 

 faction. Thirty-two degrees Fahr., or 0° C, and 212° Fahr., or 100° C, 

 completely prevent it. Tellier says practice accords with science. At 



* Couseryation do la Viaude, «fec. Par Ch. Tellier. Paris. 1871. 



