232 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK I. 



slaughter-house. This is not so much regarded as it ought to be. 

 The carcass of the sheep usually comes whole, but that of the ox is 

 too often sadly disfigured. The meat is not packed in so cleanly a 

 manner as it ought to be, nor has it been suffered to hang until the 

 muscles and the fat become set. Mutton should hang eighteen hours, and 

 beef thirty before being sent away. Imports of live animals for meat 

 have been greatly reduced in number since sanitary restrictions have 

 prohibited their receipt from any country in which rinderpest, pleuro- 

 pneumonia, or foot-and-mouth disease exists, and as hardly any European 

 country is free from all these diseases, and Argentina was scheduled a few 

 years ago, our imports are almost exclusively from the United States and 

 Canada, and from these countries only for slaughter at the ports of landing. 



The dead-meat trade from these countries was commenced in 1874 

 by a consignment of twelve tons, arrangements for the receipt and 

 disposal of which were made by Mr. John Dyke, of Liverpool. The 

 trade in live cattle was started the year before, by Messrs. John 

 Bell & Sons, of Glasgow. 1 The Transatlantic live and dead meat 

 trade has had a profound influence over the conditions of grazing and 

 fattening cattle in Great Britain, and the course of the markets at any 

 given period of the year cannot now be depended upon at all, for 

 whenever markets on this side begin to improve, the Americans and 

 Canadians send forward their beef ; and when prices decline, they simply 

 diminish their consignments ; so that in reality the English markets are 

 to a great extent governed from the other side of the Atlantic. This is a 

 state of things with which the farmers of the British Islands will have to 

 reckon for some time to come ; and not in reference to North America 

 only, but also to the vast grazing regions in the southern half of the 

 great Continent of the West. 



There are more favourable points connected with the " dead meat " 

 system. In this there is no offal at least if this was brought over at 

 all, it would be simply bought and sold as such, it takes up much less 

 space, requires no attention like live animals; and the system upon 

 which it is transported seems to be so effectual that it is in as good 

 condition nearly in many respects better when compared with some 

 meat exposed for sale as where the animals are bred and fed in this 

 country. The system by which the meat is preserved during the 

 voyage is very simple, and consists in merely packing or placing 

 the carcasses in chambers specially prepared and placed in convenient 

 situations in the hold of the ship. Into these chambers air artificially 

 cooled is introduced, and, circulating and remaining amongst the 

 interstices of the meat, keeps it fresh and cool for a considerable length 

 of time. It was, we believe, to Professor Gamgee that the public were 

 indebted for this system, which of all those yet introduced offers, we 

 imagine, the greatest chances of ultimate success, and is preferable 

 either to the freezing or canning of meat. At present, however, the 

 mere chilling of meat has not proved sufficient to preserve safely what 

 comes from the Antipodes, and this is frozen. 



1 See "Report on the American and Canadian Meat Trade," by J. P. Sheldon, in the 

 "Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society," vol. xiii. p. 295, 2nd series (1877). 



