54 THE WORLD'S MEAT FUTURE 



it has been doubted if the equipment had not grown too quickly 

 and outstripped the re(iuireinents of the trade. But these 

 doubts never lasted lon^. The wonderful ease with which the 

 apparently surplus plant has quickly been overtaken again and 

 again by the i;i eduction has been surprising. 



''One of the features of the trade almost from its inception has 

 been the co-existence of two classes of freezing works, viz., 

 farmers' works and proprietary works; the latter making a 

 business of buying stock from the farmers, freezing the nieat 

 and manipulating the other products for the company's own 

 account ; while the basis in the former case has been that of 

 freezing for farmers' account or for account of any buyer from 

 the farmer, and the treating the by-products in a similar way. 

 Such companies were projected and owned by farmers and their 

 agents in the first instance. Time has modified their working, 

 and many of these companies now also deal largely in stock 

 for freezing, etc., on their own account. The proprietary 



companies also freeze for farmers' account when required, but 

 it is a secondary feature of their business. As near as one can 

 say, seventeen of the forty-one works may be reckoned as 

 proprietary works, leaving twenty- four as farmers' works. The 

 working of the double system gives most of the farmers the 

 choice of having their stock frozen for shipment on their own 

 account to London, or selling the live stock or the frozen carcases 

 to one of the many buyers for English account. It is a healthy 

 feature that all the ways of doing the business seem profitable. 

 No one can say that farmers who have shipped to London on 

 their own account have done better than those who have sold to 

 proprietary works or to local buyers. But the trade goes on 

 healthily and profitably to the satisfaction of all, while both the 

 classes of companies have paid good dividends, and built up the 

 fine plants largely out of profits. 



"One can hardly refer to this subject without mentioning the 

 splendid spirit of enterprise shown by the shipping companies 

 engaged in the trade, in keeping up the refrigerated tonnage so 

 well that scarcely ever before the war was a freezing house 

 stopped working because there was not freight to carry the 

 carcases. But since the war broke out there have been some 

 delays in shipment, arising out of the commandeering of the 

 refrigerated ships by the Imperial authorities for other purposes. 

 The freight dislocation has, however, been less tlian in many 

 other trades. 



