628 CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



had been made in the United States to compete with Argentine and 

 Uruguay, the only exporters of jerked beef, and it would doubtless be 

 difiBcult to do so, as the cost of the cattle is much greater in this country. 

 Their transportation facilities t6 the West Indies are better than ours, 

 notwithstanding the difference in the distance, and a steamer leaves 

 Buenos, Ayres for the Brazilian ports every day. 



The jerked -beef trade is likewise demanding constant attention. In- 

 deed, there is a society in Montevideo, supported mainly by the Gov- 

 ernment, with the view of opening new markets for the sale of this 

 product. It is said that a great effort will be made by this society to 

 provide ways and means for substituting in the foreign markets jerked 

 beef for codfish from Sweden and Norway. They claim that the jerked 

 beef is much cheaper and much more nutritious than the codfish, and 

 that no other meat is so healthy ; that it can be laid down, free from 

 bone and moisture, in Europe at 5 cents per pound, about one-fourth 

 less than the cost of the codfish; indeed, they go so far as to say that 

 the nutritive value of jerked beef, pound for pound, is greater than that 

 of fresh meat. 



About a year ago the Buenos Ayres Standard (owned by the famous 

 statistician Mulhall) contended that, allowing IJ pence per pound and 

 IJ for freight. Merino mutton could be placed on the London wharves 

 at 3 pence per pound. A J^ew Zealand correspondent, noticing this, 

 asserts that it cannot be done for less than 3J pence per pound, but 

 after commenting upon the importation of mutton from Australia, NeW 

 Zealand, and the Plate, he admits that, " in Merino and the lower grades 

 of mutton, it is only a matter of time for the Plate to smother our Aus- 

 tralian neighbors, and drive them out of the English market by advan- 

 tages which the former possess of a slightly lower cost of production and 

 a much lower freight to England." 



A sufBciency of transportation is also being provided. lu connection 

 with this it is stated, by way of example, that Montevideo is in daily 

 communication with England by telegraph, and almost so by steam, no 

 less than 217 steamers having left England for Uruguay in 1884, be- 

 sides 198 sailing vessels; making a total of 415, or considerably more 

 than one per diem. 



The question, therefore, of freight for the exportation of jerked beef 

 in the returning vessels presents no difl&culty. When to this is added 

 that the French and Italian lines are daily going and coming between 

 Montevideo and their respective ports, to say nothing of the sailing ves- 

 sels of the different nationalities, it will be seen.that the country will 

 not suffer for want of freight. Indeed, I am told that the rivalry be- 

 tween the respective lines and boats is so great as to render freights 

 comparatively cheap. 



I have bestowed miich time and consideration upon this subject. It 

 is of vital importance to the United States, so far as the transportation 

 of frozen beef is concerned, and it is highly important that it should be 

 known that the wealthy, astute, and energetic capitalists of the Plate 

 countries, backed by the money from England, France, Italy, and Ger- 

 many, are endeavoring, not only to compete with the trade of the United 

 States in this regard, but to rival and finally supersede it. 



The Republics of Argentina and Uruguay and Paraguay alone possess 

 over 37,000,000 head of cattle and sheep. Indeed, in a comparison con- 

 tained in one of the leading journals here, it is stated that there are 

 over 1,500 cattle to every hundred inhabitknts of the Plate country, 

 and only a little over 70 cattle to the hundred iu the United States. 

 This may be, and I dare say is, exaggerated, though Mr. Curtis, if I 



