UTILISATION OF RIVER PLATE BEEP. 115 



albuminous compounds, so that the like compounds in 

 the beef (or other meat) being solidly packed in its sub- 

 stance, resist the solvent action of the salt ; and by conse- 

 quence a larger portion of nutriment remains in it. There 

 is another condition in highly fed meat favourable to this, 

 viz. its solid fat, fat which is in solid layers on the flesh, 

 and also veined through the flesh : to this fat the salt 

 adheres, or combines with it, and its antiseptic properties 

 act, while its solvent action is diminished. 



This property of veined or mixed flesh, in which the 

 fat and the lean are intermingled throughout, is a con- 

 dition of well-bred animals — animals bred for beef purposes 

 and domesticated. Cattle of wild habits, constantly in 

 motion, and getting unequal and irregular feeding, both as 

 regards quantity and quality of food, can never produce 

 this condition of meat, or its richness and flavour. It is 

 an hereditary quality engendered by feeding, selection, 

 and domesticity, by which, also, an even growth of parts 

 and large fleshy development is made a habit — a fixed, 

 hereditary habit. In contradistinction, constant motion, 

 roaming over great distances to feed and in search of 

 water, engenders a lean habit of body, as there is a con- 

 tinuous waste which, more or less, equalises the replace- 

 ment effected by the food, admitting of small accession of 

 bulk in the flesh. At many seasons of the year, when the 

 herbage is in its lesser nutritious stages, there is a positive 

 diminution in bulk and depth of flesh ; and when herbage 

 is in abundance, and in that stage of growth when its 

 fattening properties prevail, the fatty accumulations are 

 more rapid than the flesh formations, and the fat, as a 

 consequence, is deposited in parts internal, around the 

 kidneys and viscera ; there is little external layering of 

 fat, and little or no marking or veining of the flesh with 

 fatty matter. 



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