BEEF FATTENING. 63 



of sending the carcasses, or else the enterprise of the advo- 

 cates of the latter method outstripped their competitors. In 

 any event, for the past few years we have been provided with 

 beef shipped in refrigerating cars. 



What has been our experience ? Are we better off than 

 under the old way? I say no. Do you ask why? I reply, 

 at the present time the cattle slaughtered in Chicago must 

 be^got to the slaughter-houses from Texas and the Eastern 

 slopes of the Rocky iMountains, largely. 



To reach their destination, most of them are driven and 

 carried as for, or farther, than under the old plan when cattle 

 were shipped from Chicago to Brighton, and they reach 

 Chicao-o in the same or a similar exhausted and diseased con- 

 dition as we found them in at Brighton. In that condition 

 they are killed at Chicago and then frozen and sent on to us. 



Now if this frozen beef should undergo no further change, 

 we might congratulate ourselves on receiving our beef killed 

 and dressed at our very doors. But here our difficulties 

 commence again. 



This beef, so prepared for our market, must of necessity 

 be handled by the wholesaler and the retailer. It must be 

 more or less exposed to the air and to a higher temperature, 

 and consequently undergo chemical changes not favorable to 

 the preservation of its quality and flavor. 



The truth of my position can be fully ascertained by the 

 careful inspection of the beef at the city meat-stalls, first, 

 as to the condition of the animal when killed. Of course the 

 carcasses vary, but a large majority of them clearly show 

 no evidence that the animals were fat and in proper condition 

 when killed. It is not necessary to particularize as to the 

 indubitable proofs of fat beef. Every one familiar with beet 

 knows those peculiar indications of tender and well-flavored 

 beef. 



The marketman will occasionally point with pride to the 

 round of beef w^hich needs no encomium to recommend it to 

 the purchaser. Such meat sells itself. Its flavor is distrib- 

 uted throughout, like plums in a Thanksgiving pudding. 



But how much of such beef is ever received from Chicago? 

 As a housekeeper for eighteen years I have seen but little 

 of it. 



