38 BULLETIN 1317, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
meat trade in these districts is important. During recent years 
rural communities have become increasingly dependent upon com- 
mercial retail channels for their meat supply. Good roads, auto- 
mobiles, and telephone service make it possible for the rural popu- 
lation to use the retail shop, in part at least, rather than to rely 
entirely upon killing and curing the family supply. In districts 
where the retail shop can not conveniently be reached, peddlers often 
supply the needs, and where livestock for slaughtering is available, 
meat clubs often constitute means for providing fresh meat, es- 
pecially beef. 
For studying the meat trade in rural communities, counties of 
widely varying type were selected. The counties convassed in detail 
were Merrimack County, N. H., Broome County, N. Y., Eau Claire 
County, Wis., Ramsey County, N. Dak., Lancaster County, Nebr., 
Marion County, Kans., Warren County, Ky., and Richland County, 
S. C. (See Table 22.) Further information regarding meat-wagon 
routes, peddlers, and meat clubs was secured from 787 replies to 
1,683 questionnaires sent out to county agents, supplementing data 
secured by personal convass. The data secured are necessarily in- 
adequate as a basis for drawing detailed conclusions regarding all 
sections of the country, but the survey reveals certain conditions 
existing and certain problems involved in the distribution of fresh 
meats in rural communities somewhat different from those prevalent 
in urban communities. 
SOURCES OF SUPPLIES OF MEATS 
There is still a substantial amount of local slaughter in rural com- 
munities by farmers for home use and by small retailers for sale to 
farmer and village customers. In the more thickly settled rural dis- 
tricts of the Northeast local slaughter consists principally of dairy 
stock, and a very large percentage of the fresh meat for the rural 
trade is obtained by local shipment from the branch houses of west- 
ern packers. In the rural districts of the West, where meat animals 
are locally available, in some instances substantially all the fresh 
meat is of local slaughter, often because of cost of transportation. 
In districts remote from railways, the fresh meat supply is neces- 
sarily of local slaughter. 
In the South the smaller amount of fresh meat consumed in rural 
districts furnishes still less encouragement to regular trade from 
centralized markets. Among the negro population in certain south- 
ern districts, the fresh-meat supply in the summer months is limited 
to two or three days at the end of the week. The rural meat dealer, 
whose shop is of the crudest, is usually engaged in some other occu- 
pation during the early days of the week. On Friday he obtains a 
supply of ice, slaughters an animal, and reserves for fresh-meat sale 
such portions as can be disposed of within the next two days. The 
remainder is " barbecued " and kept for a longer period, awaiting 
sale. In the winter months, fresh meats can be carried to better 
advantage and are sold to a considerable extent in general stores. 
More cured meats than fresh meats are consumed in rural sections 
of the United States, whereas in urban sections the preponderance of 
consumption is in fresh meats. In the South, climatic conditions, the 
economic status of a large percentage of the inhabitants, and the 
