316 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



The meat remains in the chilling-rooms until the steamer is ready to 

 receive it, and then it is carefully conveyed on trucks with springs, so 

 as to avoid mussing. Mr. Eastman has never lost a single quarter by 

 spoiling, and says that his beef is in better order to ship to the interior 

 markets after it lands and keeps better than beef fresh-killed on the 

 spot. He says that he shipped several hundred quarters last summer 

 when the thermometer stood at 100°, and not a pound was tainted or 

 spoiled. It was taken from the chilling-room at night and rapidly 

 transferred into the refrigerators on the stean;ers, and on the other side 

 of the Atlantic was sent forward under a very trying temperature. He 

 thinks that the cold atmosphere effectually closes the pores or sears the 

 surface of the meat, so that it is not as susceptible to the effects of heat 

 and taint as freshly-killed meat, while at the same time it looks as fresh 

 and bright as the newly killed, and does not lose anything in flavor. 

 This beef sells in the foreign markets at 7 to 8 pence per pound, and is 

 pronounced just as good as the home fed, which sells at 10 to 12 pence 

 per liound. The American beef is lighter, and this is really the greatest 

 and iwssibly the only difference. If the American farmer will feed his 

 cattle more, thereby bringing them to a higher condition, and making 

 the beef better and more weighty, he may reasonably expect nearly, 

 if not quite, the same price for his beef in the English market which the 

 home-produced brings. But the light and thin beeves, which make up a 

 large proportion of the supply sent to the seaboard, will not compete 

 with the stall-fed short-horns and other improved breeds of the English 

 and Scotch graziers. 



The cost to Mr. Eastman is about $26 per head, in gold, for i)reparing, 

 freight, and cost in transit, including commissions on the other side. 

 The averaged i:>rice realized is about $90, gold. Mr. Eastman is now 

 engaged in constructing three additional large refrigerators or chilling- 

 rooms at West Fifty-ninth street, and will enlarge his operation accord- 

 ingly. At the present time, on an average, lifteen hundred cattle per 

 week are shipped from New York. 



While Mr. Eastman may be properly considered the pioneer in this 

 enterprise, being the first to establish a i)aying trade in fresh-meat ex- 

 portation, the lact should be recorded that Mr. John J. Bate, of New 

 York, made several experiments in this direction. He tells the story of 

 this exi)erimental operation as follows : 



On the 11th Fehruary, 1875, I shipped by the flteamer Baltic, in refrigerator, twelve 

 quarters of beef, twelve sheep, and six hogs. The managers of the White Star line 

 thought so little of the enterprise that they refused mo the use of steam to run the 

 fan-blower. The meat reached Liverpool iu good condition by the use of hand-power 

 to operate the fan. On the Gth of June following I shipped on the steamer Wisconsin 

 ten carcasses of beef, thirty sheep, and twelve hogs, the meat reaching Liverpool in 

 good condition. On the 10th of August following I shipi)ed on the steamer Britannic 

 twenty carcasses beef and one hundred and forty sheep iu refrigerator. The meat 

 arrived in Liverpool in good condition. Used steam. In October following Mr. T. C. 

 Eastman made the next and all succeeding shipments. 



Gillett and Sherman, another large shipping firm in New York, 

 slaughter and prepare their beef at the New Jersey stock-yards, 

 located at Harsimus Cove, in connection with the Pennsylvania Central 

 and Erie Eailroads. They are sending from one hundred to three hundred 

 cattle per week, and ship on three steamers of the Inman line, two of the 

 Cunard line, with one steamer on the National. This firm began in August, 

 1875, with a shipment of seventy-one cattle. They have sent about tbree 

 thousand five hundred altogether, and estimate the cost of shipment and 

 sale to be $23, gold, and the average sale per head to be $90, gold. Their 

 largest refrigerator is in the City of Chester, (Inman line,) and will hold 



