298 



slaughterers, who kill and dress for one dollar* per head with 

 the customary perquisites, or else purchase and kill on their own 

 account, and supply the marketmen in the city and vicinity 



* In my report on Franklin county, I stated this fee at two dollars. I was 

 misinformed, though including the perquisites, it is considered equal to that. 

 At Brighton, five quarters are made, as the tallow and hide are considered a 

 fifth quarter, and their weight returned and paid for as the meat. In New 

 York Markets, only four quarters are made ; the hide and tallow are not 

 weighed or reckoned in the price, and this fact is to be regarded in compar- 

 ing the prices of cattle in the two markets. 



In Brighton Market, the offal or perquisites of the slaughterer, are the en- 

 trails, the feet, the head, a strip from the fore shin, and the blood. The 

 tongue, cheeks, and heart of the bullock goto the butcher. The slaughterer 

 sells the feet and head to tiie tallow chandler and soap boiler, who extracts 

 the tallow and oil ; the claws go to the comb-maker, the bones and pith of 

 the horns go to the bone-mill for manure, or for the purpose of obtaining 

 animal charcoal, and the blood to the sugar refineries. A thorough system 

 of economy pervades all the branches of the business. 



It is a fact worth recording in reference to one extensive slaughtering es- 

 tablishment, and it may a])ply to others for aught 1 know, that the hides sold 

 from it command alwavs twenty-five cents per one hundred lbs. above the 

 market price. The solution is this. No spirituous liquor has polluted these 

 premises for nearly twenty years, and no man has been employed here, who 

 was known to use any. The consequence is that the hides are never cut ; 

 and are eagerly sought after for factory bands and various other purposes, 

 where holes in the leather would render it hazardous and unfit for use. 

 When we consider the ten thousand ramifications in respect to the security 

 of human lile and the practice of all arts and trades into which the curses 

 of intemperance and the blessed influences of sobriety extend themselves, 

 we cannot feel too deep an interest in establishing a system of universal ab- 

 stinence, and in exorcising this worst of all evil spirits, intoxicating spirit, 

 from every hold where he has had jjossession. 



It is extremely desirable that the system of buying and selling by live 

 weight or on the hoof, should be adoj)ted at Brighton. It would be greatly 

 to the advantage of the drovers both in respect to interest and morals, to be 

 able to finish their business in one day, receive their jnoney on the sale of 

 their cattle and return immediately to their homes. It would prevent the 

 suspicion of iiaud which now sometimes exists in the returns of weight 

 made by the slaughterers, by removing all opportimity for it. I may men- 

 tion an occurrence, which shows the boldness with which these frauds are 

 sometimes committed, and the extraordinary circumstances by which in 

 many cases crimes, when deemed most safely covered up, are detected. A 



