474 Transactions of the American Institute. 



luxuriance of pastures, and the want of exact knowledge as to 

 memis whereby foods may be combined and qualified for the pres- 

 ervation and improvement of the animal economy. I could detain 

 3^ou long on the subject of mixing foods, and even on that of occa- 

 sionally mixing medicines with food, but I hope to do this in a 

 more satisfactoiy and practical manner than it is possible for me to 

 do it to-day, after I have traveled and gained American experience. 



While on the one hand you can understand how much every one 

 might be benefited by the prevention of diseases I have alluded 

 to, you must, without any difficulty, be enabled to appreciate that 

 the readiest way in which I could serve you is in suggesting means 

 whereby the cattle and the sheep, the swine and the poultry of 

 your endless prairies and Mezquite grounds may be rendered 

 available where human beings congregate in hundreds of thousands, 

 and even millions. 



Fancy how greatly your arts and manufactures would flourish 

 under any system which provided readily the blood and sinews 

 which are essential to their development. Prosperity is at hand if 

 we can keep our laborers in ease, comfort and coutentedness by an 

 abundance of food. When hunger and poverty come in at the 

 door, love flies out by the window; and if this be true too often of 

 matrimonj^ it is truer still of that bond of unity and affection which 

 is essential to the well-being, harmony and prosperity of a commu- 

 nity. 



You have been expecting me to talk of the process whereby the 

 meats of Texas and Florida may be supplied at low rates to your 

 Northern cities, and I think I can say there are many now in New 

 York who have had not only ocular demonstrations, but the proof 

 of the pudding is in the eating, that we can keep carcasses of ani- 

 mals and improve them; we can ripen them and increase the delicacy 

 of their flavor, by a method of preservation which has been as yet 

 one of the great necessities of the age. I am, j^erhaps, bolder in 

 speaking thus after having eaten, on this side of the Atlantic, mutton 

 that I psicked on the other side, than I should have dared to have 

 been before; but we have experimented fairly and successfully, and 

 I stand up, without fear of contradiction, and declare that if the 

 beef and mutton of certain regions is better than in certain otliers, 

 that beef and mutton will not lose by transporting, but rather have 

 the time for its perfection and improvement. Those who have 

 devoted much attention to meat preservation have adopted a great 

 variety of plans, which may be succintly stated as follows: 1. D©- 



