INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL. 15 



in 1878 to 991,000 cwt. in 1883. Lard has declined 

 irom 901,214 cwt. in 1878 to 751,128 cwt. in 1883. 

 Fresh and salted mutton is about the same — 42,841 cwt. 

 in 1878, and 41,000 cwt. in 1883. Preserved meat (other 

 than salted) was as high as 472,086 cwt. in 1880, and 

 only 309,579 cwt. in 1883. Of salted pork, 322,148 

 ■cwt. was imported in 1878, and but 247,667 cwt. in 

 1883. At a recent meeting of the National Wool Growers' 

 Association at Chicago, it was stated that sheep-farming 

 in the States yields £30,000,000 sterling in wool and 

 mutton, there being 1,020,000 sheep farmers pursuing 

 the industry, with £100,000,000 capital invested in it. 

 Further details of our foreign supplies of animal food 

 will be given in subsequent pages. 



Jerked Meats. — ^Among the di'ied and smoked foods 

 eaten by various people are jerked bear's meat, jerked 

 seal and walrus, and porpoise meat, used by the American 

 Indians ; jerked and smoked buffalo meat, dried and 

 smoked beef, dried and smoked venison, hams of various 

 kinds, jerked squirrels, and other small mammals, desic- 

 ■cated meat, and meat extract. 



The dried meat so largely prepared in South America 

 and shipped to Brazil and the West Indies, as animal 

 food for the negroes, has been tried for Europe, but met 

 with no approval. It is known as " charqui," " tasago," 

 ■OT jerked meat. From 650,000 to 900,000 cwt. of this is 

 shipped annually from Buenos Ayres and Montevideo, 

 about half as much from the Southern provinces of 

 Brazil, and some from Chili. 



Beef jerking is confined to the hot and dry summer 

 months, the jerking season in Chili being looked forward 

 to like harvest time in England. In well regulated estab- 

 lishments the labour is divided; the jerkers having 

 nothing to do with the killing, skinning, etc. So expert 

 are they as to excite the astonishment of novices at the 

 rapidity with which they slice the animal up, in slices 

 .so thin as to admit of a quick sun-drying on hurdles 

 "well elevated above the ground. 



The climate of Chili, from its extreme dryness, is 



