1868. | On an Extraneous Meat-supply. 3 
present to import live stock or fresh meat with any chance of its 
arriving here in a sound or healthy condition. From its concen- 
trated form, and comparatively reasonable price, this extract of meat 
is now largely used in the preparation of soup, and the readers of 
such papers as the ‘ Pharmaceutical Journal’ must see with surprise 
with what energy it is being pressed by the manufacturers upon the 
notice of the medical profession; it cannot fail to relieve m some 
degree the demand for fresh meat. 
Still, there is a great outery for an artificial, or rather for an 
extraneous supply of fresh meat, and when we come to look abroad, 
and consider the relative value of this commodity there and at 
home, we are not a little startled at the result of our inquiries. 
“ First-rate meat is sold in the market at Buenos Ayres by the 
piece and not by weight, a leg of mutton costing from 10d. to 1s., 
and beef is comparatively cheaper ;”* the flocks of sheep about the 
River Plate are so numerous, that “the term of natural life of the 
animal renders it henceforth necessary that there should be annually 
slaughtered and, for want of a better means of utilizing them, 
‘boiled down’ more or less 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 sheep, other- 
wise they would die natural deaths or from starvation, and their 
carcass-products, the main sources of a breeder’s profit, be lost,” 
and on an “ Estancia” belonging to a well-known firm of breeders 
in Urugnay, which is now being converted into a joint stock com- 
pany, with a view to the breeding and feeding of cattle and the pre- 
servation of meat for the English market, there are nearly 90,000 
sheep, 5,600 head of cattle, and 1,200 horses, valued together at 
59,2271.; in other words, the sheep are valued at about thirteen 
shillings each, and about 7,000 head of cattle and horses are thrown 
into the bargain gratis, whilst the “freehold” land is said to be 
“rich bottom land, with scarcely a stone to be found on it, irrigated 
by numerous rivulets, producing most luxuriant fodder for sheep 
and cattle,” and it is set down in the valuation at eighteen and 
ninepence per acre.t In short, whilst in England the half-starved 
people are breaking into butchers’ shops to enforce a reduction of 
meat upon tenpencea pound, the same staple may be bought within 
five weeks’ steaming of us at a nominal price, and is annually de- 
stroyed in immense quantities to save the more valuable (because 
more easily preservable) fat and hides; and the land upon which the 
cattle is pastured may be bought under a pound an acre! We 
* «Report on the Methods Employed in the River Plate for curing Meat for 
European Markets,’ by Francis Clare Ford, Esq., Brit. Chargé d’ Affaires at Buenos 
Ayres. Presented to both Houses. 1866. London: Harrison & Sons. 
+ Letter of Mr. W. Latham to ‘The Times,’ dated Buenos Ayres, Sept. 25, 1867. 
t ‘Supply of Meat from South America,’ by A. Prange, Esq. Mr. Prange 
wrote to the ‘The Times, Oct. 22, and his statement is confirmed by other writers 
in the same journal, that he can produce the best fed beef on his Estancia, Nueva 
Alemania, on the River Plate, at twopence per pound ! 9 
B 
