314 EERORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



meat-market, and already tbe gloomy prophets of evil are predicting a 

 time of increased pressure when the English farmer's last resource shall 

 be taken from him." 



This trade is a very promising feature in the meat-distribution of this 

 country. It may grow into a business of vast importance to our farm- 

 ers. Its extension must depend upon the continuance of a difference 

 between American and English prices sufficient to constitute a satisfac- 

 tory margin for expenses and profits. One condition needing amend- 

 ment is evidently the weight of our beeves. Were there a larger i^ro- 

 portion of heavy, fully-fattened animals, the price realized would be 

 increased above the advance in cost. Feeders have their share in this 

 work, and must co-operate with shippers if they would develope a per- 

 manent and profitable industry. The competition will tend to advance 

 home-prices in proportion to the comparative magnitude of the ship- 

 ments. Such advance would tend to limit the growth of the trade, even 

 to the destruction of the business, if the margin should be reduced below 

 expense of shipment. A more scientific course of feeding, the exercise 

 of skill and the practice of economy in all the methods ot management 

 and feeding, become, therefore, essential elements of growth and suc- 

 cess in transatlantic shipment of American beef. 



The history of the beginning of this new enterprise which is here pre- 

 sented is the result of the investigation of Col. F. D. Curtis, of New 

 York, an intelligent breeder of several varieties of farm-stock and an 

 enthusiastic promoter of true progress in American agriculture : 



In October, 1875, Mr. Timothy C. Eastman began his first shipments 

 of fresh beef from America to England. Mr. Eastman is the pioneer in 

 this enterprise, which has now assumed such extensiv^e proportions. Sis 

 first shipment consisted of forty-five cattle and fifty sheep. In Decem- 

 ber following ho continued the export, increasing the number of cat- 

 tle to a hundred, and from that time to the present he has made weekly 

 consignments of from one hundred to several hundreds, gradually in- 

 creasing the trade until during the close of 1876 and the beginning of 

 1877 his shipments were from six hundred to one thousand per week. 

 The first week in February, 1877, he shipped ten hundred and twenty- 

 two cattle and seven hundred sheep. Mr. Eastman ships by the Williams 

 and Guion, the White Star, and Anchor lines of steamships. Ho has 

 shipped about thirty thousand in all, and has opened a market in Lon- 

 don, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheflield, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, 

 Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, andother towns in England and Scotland. 

 The meat is kept Iresh by a process on which a patent was obtained by 

 Mr. Bate, of which Mr. Eastman is the sole owner. The patent is for 

 preserving meat fresh by inclosing it in an air-light chamber and forcing 

 among it a current of cold dry air. Refrigerators, or air-tight chambers, 

 are constructed between decks, according to the capacity of the steamers 

 or the demands of trade, the largest one being on the Wisconsin, (Will- 

 iams and Guion line,) which is 40 feet wide, 100 feet long, and 7 feet 

 high. These immense air-tight chambers are surrounded on all sides 

 by three air-tigbt walls made of matched lumber covered with air-tight 

 paper, which is made so by being saturated with rosin. Between these 

 surrounding walls there is an open space of an inch and a half, making 

 the walls as perfect non-conductors as possible. 



An ice-house is constructed on one side or end of the refrigerator, as 

 is most convenient, and is filled with ice. The ice-compartment is in pro- 

 portion to the size of the refrigerator, and is lined with galvanized sheet- 

 iron. Fifty tons of ice are required by the Bate process for saving GO 

 tons of meat. A cast-iron fan or blower is placed inside of the meat- 



