U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Third, it should have permanence. Xo system of grading which 
is unduly influenced by geography, temporary supply, demand, or 
other trade conditions, or by time, can ever become standard. The 
main weakness of most of the systems of grading used heretofore 
lay in their flexibility and instability. Location of the market, 
season of the year, temporary fluctuations, either in available sup- 
plies or trade preference, brought decided changes in the determi- 
nation of grades. A carcass of beef which graded Good on one 
market was called Medium on another, and possibly Choice on a 
third. Furthermore, on the same market, at certain seasons of the 
year, when supplies of grass-fed beef were plentiful, the whole 
scale of grades was perceptibly lowered and carcasses were graded 
Good which would have been called Medium at another season when 
the bulk of the beef offered was derived from grain-fed animals. 
Obviously, if the system is subject to such variations, one market 
has as much right as another to change it, and, carrying the logic 
of the situation a step further, every member of the trade is privi- 
leged to alter the scheme of grading to suit his own fancy or con- 
venience of the moment. Such a situation, of course, defeats the 
whole purpose of standardization and leads to confusion and chaos 
in marketing. 
Apparently, then, the only way to render a system of classifying 
and grading independent of such rapidly changing conditions is to 
base it on certain fundamental characteristics inherent in the com- 
modity, defining these characteristics as clearly as possible, and 
setting limits for them as definite as circumstances will permit. 
Virtually all systems of classifiying beef are comparatively simple. 
Classification usually is based on certain broad, general principles, 
which are easily defined and readily applied. The system of classify- 
ing used in this bulletin, based wholly on the sex condition of the 
animal which produced the beef, presents no difficulties of definition 
and few of application. Grading within the classes, however, is a 
different matter. 
DIFFICULTIES IN EVOLVING STANDARD CLASSES AND GRADES 
FOR BEEF.* 
Beef is a very difficult commodity to grade. Absolute exactness 
is impossible. This is due partly to the fact that each individual 
carcass differs somewhat from every other carcass; hence no given 
carcass can be taken as a sample exactly typical of a large number. 
Furthermore, meat is extremely perishable, which makes both quick 
handling and a minimum of handling highly essential. 
1 For purposes of this bulletin beef may be defined ;is flesh from mature animals of the 
bovine species. Veal, on the other hand, is a term used in designate the flesh of an Imma- 
ture bovine animal. So far as trade practice goes the two terms, beef and veal, are rather 
loosely used. The exact line of demarcation between them has not yel been sharply 
defined. One merges gradually and, to the ordinary observer. Imperceptibly Into the 
other an<l it is as difficult to define in a ie.\t of this kind when veal becomes beef In the 
commonly accepted sense as to determine exactly when a boy becomes a man. Heredity 
or breeding, character of feed, method of handling and general circumstances of environ- 
ment are potenl iniiiiemes in determining the time and rapidity of the transformation. 
Because of the extreme variability ol all of these factors neither age, weight, or size will 
erv< as a reliable criterion. Certain changes, however, do occur in the Mesh of the 
animal, and ii is these changes which determine whether the commodity is beef or veal. 
Unfortunately, the transformation occurs so gradually that the line or demarcation be- 
tween beet and veal musl be a more or less arbitral*} matter, This subject will be dis- 
cussed in detail in a subsequent bulletin on veal. 
