624 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



The same author (anonymous, but whose book is issued by the au- 

 thority of the consulate-general of Uruguay, London, 1883) estimates 

 the "commercial value of an ox, young and in good condition," as fol- 

 lows: 



Hide, 68 pounds, at 71 reals per 75 pounds 1^ ^"^ 



Tallow, 40 pounds, at 13 reals per 25 pounds 2 04 



Meat, 150 pounds, at 55 reals per quintal of 100 pounds - " "" 



Remnants ^^ 



Total 18 87 



The saladero expenses for each animal are about $3.60. 



THE LIEBIG EXTRACT OF BEEF FACTORY. 



The " Liebig Extract of Beef" has now a world-wide reputation ; in- 

 deed, I believe that it has become the universal prescription for debility 

 and prostration. The factory is located in this Kepublic, at Fray Ben- 

 tos, in the department of Rio Negro, on the river Uruguay. It em- 

 ploys over 500 men, and loads at its own wharves upwards of 80 ves- 

 sels during the year for the export of the produce to Europe. As this 

 factory and its extract have become so famous, they merit more than a 

 passing notice. Indeed, it must be a matter of interest and curiosity to 

 the thousands of invalids who daily consume the Liebig extract to 

 know how it is made. 



The best description given of it is by Mr. Eathbone, in his report to 

 the Orange Estancia Company, Liverpool, from which we will make 

 such extracts as our limited space will allow : 



The cattle are, on arrival, driven into large corrals or paddocks, arranged so as to 

 supply them with water, but no food is given to them. A long, narrow passage, about 

 6 or 7 feet wide, and skirted by a long, narrow platform pathway, about the height 

 of the animal's horns, leads down to a small paddock, with a similar pathway around 

 and a bridge over the opening into the galpon, which is further closed by a movable 

 beam. Below the bridge is a large, low, square iron truck on a tramway which runs 

 into the galpon, and branches into two parallel lines, so that the two trucks may pass 

 each other. Along the left side of the shed are long ranges of rails for hanging meat; 

 and along the right hand, a flat, slightly shelving, flagged space for laying the oxen 

 upon. At the end of the shed is a large brine bath for soaking the skins, and beyond 

 this there are further sheds where the skins are piled up ■with salt previous to being 

 shipped. In saladeros the skins are generally salted, but on estancias the hides are 

 usually dried. As I arrived, about fifty oxen were being hunted down the " race" 

 or paddock into the fatal paddock. 



* # # # # * # 



When the paddock was full and the gate shut, a man -with a lasso, of which one 

 end was attached to a steam winch outside (natives call it the English horse), went 

 round the pathway and threw the noose over the most prominent horns he could see, 

 which were by no means ordinarily the nearest to the bridge. The winch being set 

 going, the beast was hauled, stumbling and slipping and pushing aside all animiiJs in 

 its way, till its head was chocked up against the other beam leading into the galpon, 

 upon which stood the killer, who, with a stab close behind the head with a large dag- 

 ger-bladed knife, cut the spinal cord, and the animal at once dropped with a heavy 

 thud, but without a struggle, onto the iron truck ; the lower beam was then rapidly- 

 withdrawn, the lasso disengaged, and the truck run into the galpon by the men. 

 Here, by means of a lasso attached to a horse, the animal was hitched into its place 

 at the side of the shed, where a skinner was waiting for it, who immediately cut its 

 thraat and began to skin it. The blood was caught in large scoops and ladled into 

 casks placed for the purpose. Meanwhile the skinner rapidly took the skin off, and, 

 though sensation was probably thoroughly destroyed by severance of thespinal cord, 

 yet muscular action was not, and it was rather ghastly to see the struggles of an an- 

 imal with half its skin off, and even to detect a sound painfully like a bellow. These 

 movements aeem to take place when certain nerves were touched about the neck and 

 thus set m action. The skin off, it was taken to the brine bath spoken of, the entrails 

 were taken out an4 carried away, the ribs cleared of flesh, and tl^e Jimbs cut off an4 



