URUGUAY 151 



There is another process by which cattle meat is utilised. 

 Few people are aware that much of the beef extract on the 

 markets comes from the special establishments in Uruguay 

 erected for that purpose. The name " Liebig " is now actually 

 synonymous with beef extract ; and the company's factory 

 is at Fray Bentos, on the Uruguay River, about 100 miles 

 above Buenos Aires, but where there is a depth of water 

 sufficient to allow the entrance of vessels of a draft of 20 ft. 

 Fray Bentos has been called the greatest kitchen in the world, 

 and on some days 2500 head of cattle are slaughtered and 

 treated. 



There is room for greater development, because, with all 

 that has been accomplished, the limit of economic produc- 

 tivity is a long way from being reached. With the steadily 

 increasing demand for meat and meat products in all the 

 consuming markets of the world, with the well-known adapt- 

 ability of the people of Uruguay for agricultural and pastoral 

 life, with the encouraging tendency to aid immigration to the 

 country, and the facility with which new settlers are absorbed 

 by the population, Uruguay takes a favoured place among 

 the cattle countries of America. 



A Uruguayan law of 8th January, 1916, extends for five 

 years the period during which building material and machinery 

 for the construction of meat-packing establishments are to be 

 admitted free of duty. The exemption from duty of such 

 articles was previously authorised for a period of five years 

 by a law of 13th July, 1911. 



The first freezing plant in Uruguay was the Frigorifica 

 Uruguaya, established at Montevideo. It has a present daily 

 capacity of 1200 steers and 4000 sheep. In 1911 Swift bought 

 three jerked beef plants located near Montevideo, and com- 

 menced the erection of a freezing plant with a capital of 

 4,000,000 pesos. The company soon became a leading factor 

 in the Uruguayan cattle market, and has a present capacity 

 of 2000 steers and 3000 sheep per day. A Morris plant, known 

 as the Frigorifico Artigas, has a capacity of from 1000 to 2000 

 steers, 2000 sheep and 500 hogs per day. 



