THE CUBA REVIEW 25 
Cattle Train 
into the refrigerators and ice boxes of the shops and is disposed of thereafter as second 
grade meat. How this prejudice has arisen in this semi-tropical country, where it would 
seem that refrigeration is absolutely essential to the proper preparation and preservation 
of meats, is difficult to imagine, but the prejudice is so deeply rooted as to have caused 
an absolute failure of a complete plant established a number of years ago in Camagiey, 
in which was installed the very finest of machinery and in connection with which were 
built the most up-to-date refrigerating plants. It was thought by those promoting this 
enterprise that the heavy loss of weight which occurred in shipping cattle from Camagiiey 
to Cuba’s principal market, Havana, could be avoided by the killing of the animals in 
Camagiiey and their shipment in refrigerator cars to Havana, to be there stored and 
delivered as required from the refrigerators of the Company established here in this 
City. As a part of the equipment of the Company, fine refrigerated auto trucks were 
employed for making city deliveries here, but the promotors had not taken into con- 
sideration the popular prejudice referred to. Moreover, they soon realized that the loss 
of weight in shipment of cattle from Camagiiey to Havana is caused, not through loss 
of the weight of meat obtainable after killing, but through loss of weight of stomach 
contents. The result was a complete failure and the definite closing down some time 
ago of this plant. Another result, of course, of the prejucide we have mentioned is that 
except for consumption by the foreign element in Cuba, very little refrigerated meat is 
imported, competition with the native meats being impossible. 
To one familiar with the various cuts offered by the butcher of the United States, 
the appearance of a meat shop in Cuba causes surprise. There is no such thing here as 
a definite system of cutting up the animal. Meats are classed as first, second and third, 
the first being practically all boneless meat, except that of the neck which is considered 
second class, while the third class consists of bones on which is found a small percentage 
of meat. This gives the keynote to the method of cutting up the animal after butchering, 
as the idea is simply to remove the bone and the fat from the meat, the latter then being 
cut up in any manner whatever so as to furnish to each customer the number of pounds 
of meat he requires. We know of only one part of the animal that is always kept sepa- 
rate, this being the tenderloin. 
