CHAPTER XI. 



ZOMMUNICATED BY C. T. PETERS, ESQ. 

 CTTRING PROVISIONS FOR THE ENGLISH MARKET. 



THE revision of the tariff upon provisions, by the Eng- 

 lish government, will have a much more important bear- 

 ing upon the agricultural interest of this country, than 

 any, and indeed all the changes that could be safely made 

 in their corn-laws. At present prices, even, without any 

 change in the duty, both beef and pork could be sent to 

 the English market at a profit, if it had been cured in the 

 same manner, and put up in the same kind of packages, 

 which has been so long the custom in that country. It is 

 useless to expect a whole nation to change their customs 

 to suit our views ; and if we would a-ail ourselves of 

 their markets, we must conform to their customs and 

 prejudices ; if the fixed and unchanging habits of a whole 

 nation must be called so. 



Foreseeing that, at no distant day, the provision busi- 

 ness must become the great business of this country, while 

 in Europe, last winter, I endeavored to make myself per- 

 fectly familiar with everything connected with the provi- 

 sion trade. I visited the great curing and packing estab- 

 lishments in Ireland, and made myself master of the whole 

 subject of curing and packing provisions. I then visited 

 the great markets of Europe, Liverpool and London, and, 

 under the instruction of some of the oldest and most re- 

 spectable provision merchants of those cities, endeavored 

 to make myself thoroughly acquainted with everything 

 "dative to the wants and peculiar shades of the different 



