2 On an Extvaneous Meat-supply. | Jan. 
that therefore scientific men are regardless of the more practical 
aspect of that matter. 
As we have already said, agriculturists are improving the breed 
of our cattle and seeking to bring a better supply to the meat mar- 
ket ; manufacturers are multiplyimg our stores of artificial fodder, 
so that a good or bad season for pasture is of less moment than 
formerly, and each succeeding year brings us stores of fresh mate- 
rials for this purpose from some new quarter of the globe; whilst 
chemists and meat curers are engaged in the keenest competition to 
preserve beef and other kinds of flesh abroad and at home; so that 
all the resources of art and science are being brought to bear in 
the effort to counteract the result of cattle plagues, the rapacity of 
butchers, and a rapidly increasing population. 
But there is, at present, one grave obstacle in the way of obtain- 
ing effectual relief from a short supply of meat, which extends to 
hardly any similar substance, and that is the difficulty of importing 
it from abroad in its fresh condition. Cotton shipped from distant 
parts arrives here unimpaired in quality and undepreciated in 
value; so too coffee, tea, wheat, and hundreds of other necessaries 
and luxuries of life; but with the exception of smoked or salted 
flesh imported from a distance, and the limited supply of lean cattle 
brought from nearer countries, and rendered still more limited by 
cattle plague regulations, we have so far been unable to avail our- 
selves to any large extent of the live-stock of other parts of the 
globe. Something has, however, been accomplished, and in what 
condition we should have been, were that not the case, it is im- 
possible to surmise. From Holland, Belgium, and other European 
countries we have for a long time past obtained supplies of lean- 
stock which has been rapidly fed in England (chiefly upon food 
originally the produce of Russia, India, and Africa), and placed upon 
our markets. Hams, bacon, and pickled or salted beef have formed 
a considerable feature in our North American import trade, and re- 
cent advertisements have informed the public that South American 
press-packed beef, of the finest quality and free from bone, is retailed 
“at a handsome profit to the dealer at fourpence per pound;” of 
the last named, it is right to say, that it cannot be looked upon as 
a description of food which will long maintain its footing, and the 
enterprising men who have so far succeeded in preserving their meat, 
must improve its quality, or it will not find its way into competition 
with our best English beef: to this subject we shall refer fully 
hereafter. A not unimportant feature in our meat-supply, and one 
for which we are solely indebted to Science, is the manufacture of 
the so-called “ Hatractum Carnis” of Professor Liebig, a process, 
as our readers are doubtless well aware, by which the nutritive 
properties of meat are condensed into a portable form, and brought 
from other parts of the world, from whence it would be difficult at 
