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THE MARKET seniiade OF THE COUNTRY. 253 
the Illinois, and the Wabash to tide-water cities. An attentive consid- 
eration of the subject, and conversation with the beef merchants, have 
convinced us that the true line of improvement lies in the direction of 
a well-regulated beef express from Chicago and St. Louis to New York, 
Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. There are two ways in which 
such express can work with profit. By the use of padded cars, made 
expressly for the purpose, with movable partitions, each animal can 
stand in one place without being jostled, horned, or kicked by his fel- 
Jow prisoners. If, in addition to such improvement, the cars ean be 
rolied at a rapid and uniform rate, say at an average of 15 miles an 
hour, fat and gentle beeves can be taken from regions where corn is 40 
cents a bushel + to cities where steaks are 50 cents a pound, aud in this 
industry there is much profit for the drover and little suffering or loss 
of weight for the animal. 
By inventions and improvements, in which each year sees important 
advances, dressed meat can be taken from the Mississippi to the great 
cities with very slight decline in quality. The inventors in this line are 
required not merely to produce a chamber of low temperature, but a dry 
atmosphere. It is found that meat in an atmosphere of 60° to 70° that 
is dry retains its flavor and sweetness much longer than if held at 35° 
or 40° and then exposed freely to the water-laden air of tide-water 
towns. To secure an abundance of wholesome and cheap meats to all 
the inhabitants of the Atlantic slope, a system, something as described 
in outline below, is demanded. The animals should be collected, as re- 
quired in eastern markets, in or near three or four western cities; 
Chicago, St. Louis, Springfield, and Burlington, are suggested as suited 
to the present demand, but Kansas City, Omaha, and Abilene would 
soon be added. Inthese towns let large slaughter-houses be erected 
with ail the refinements and improvements known to science. For in- 
stance, the use of dry loam and of carbolic acid will so effectually 
absorb and utilize all the filth of slaughter-pens and slaughter-houses 
that such buildings need not pollute the waters of rivers and harbors 
in the least. As a part of such establishment, a large cooling-chamber 
is required, where as many as two thousand quarters could hang at a 
time. By absorbent surfaces or substances, these chambers should be 
kept dry as well as cool, and the animal heat as drawnshould be driven 
off and fresh air supplied. From this cooling-room the meat should be 
loaded into refrigerator cars, and enough should be taken from one 
abattoir to make up a meat express train, which should move at 20 
miles an hour, and make not more than three or four stoppages between 
the great rivers of the West and the eastern cities. In this way, within 
forty to fifty hours from the time a beef is killed, his quarters, in per- 
ect condition, could be hanging in an eastern market-house. The 
many incidental advantages of such ai improved system of raeat sup- 
ply need not be fully described here; the blood and offal would be re- 
tained and applied to corn and erain lands, for which they are the best 
fertilizers. The industries that are connected with a proper utilizing of 
the hides, hair, horns, bones, and gelatine, would enlarge manufacturing 
enterprise in those sections where production is out of proportion to local 
consumption. However important thése advantages, they are trifling 
as compared with the relief of animal suffering, for which, as the busi- 
ness is now conducted, we have no arithmetic subtle enough and large 
enough. Medical men cannot tell us just what maladies are bred by 
the use of feverish and livid meats, or by the introduction into the system 
of tue saltpeter that is largely used to make bruised meats less offen- 
sive to the eye; but no physician will say that the flesh of a feverish, 
