1000 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
645 
AMERICAN PORK IN BRITISH MARKETS. 
Can Its Sa/e Be Increased? 
Part II. 
The pains taken to put meat up attractively is car¬ 
ried far beyond anything in at all common practice 
in the States. At Leith, the port of Edinburgh, an 
importer of pork from several countries, including the 
United States, took me into the rear part of his estab¬ 
lishment, where he had a set of rooms in which ex¬ 
perts were at work preparing pork for the British 
trade. A dressed pig received by the firm is first dis¬ 
membered into head, sides, hams, shoulders and feet. 
The hams, shoulders and sides are trimmed as may 
be necessary, and the two latter then have the bones 
removed by skillful manipulation of the knife and 
hands. The side is then rolled lengthwise into the 
shape of a sausage, when it is neatly tied together 
with twine. The shoulder is skinned, and then tied 
up in attractive shape. A large amount of bacon sold 
to-day in Britain is rendered boneless in this way, and 
I was told that nine out of 10 shoulders were thus 
treated. While ail hams are not generally boned, this 
Scotch dealer stated that the bulk of American hams 
have their bones taken out, are skinned, rolled and 
tied. Where Canadian hams were compared in price 
with those from the States, early in July, the former 
were quoted at 58 shillings per hundredweight, while 
the latter were 50. Twice I noticed signs in conspic¬ 
uous places, that I noted down as of interest. Cover¬ 
ing the front of a building in London, painted in large 
letters, was this sign, preceded by the name of the 
advertiser: 
English and Scotch Meat 
FOR THE EPICURE. 
New Zealand and American 
FOR THE THRIFTY. 
Along by the railway going out of London was this 
sign in the form of a placard on good-sized tin painted 
sheets, so that more of the same sort must have been 
tacked up elsewhere: 
Davis’s Pea -Fed 
BREAKFAST BACON. 
These advertisements in themselves are noteworthy 
as showing that the people are taught to see the dif¬ 
ference in meat, as to the region produced in, and food 
fed the pigs producing the meat. 
How much should our feeders and breeders be in¬ 
fluenced by the demands of the export trade? That 
all depends. The natural inquiry would be, will it 
pay? If one looks simply to the immediate profit on 
the feeding of a lot of pigs with more expensive food 
than corn, I doubt it. However, the man who will 
feed his pigs more nitrogenous food, in which shorts, 
middlings, bran, ground oats, wheat or pea meal play 
a prominent part, will I feel sure produce a stronger, 
leaner, better-boned and thus more exportable pig 
than one mainly corn fed. He will also develop pigs 
that will probably be more prolific, and perhaps less 
subject to disease than those raised on almost exclu¬ 
sively fattening foods. These in themselves are im¬ 
portant considerations, and really have an important 
bearing on the final profit in swine raising and feed¬ 
ing. 
Without taking extreme grounds at all on the sub¬ 
ject, it is my belief that our swine interests would be 
well served if more pigs were produced of a leaner, 
deeper type, such as the leaner form of Berkshire or 
the best of Yorkshires, or what is known in England 
as either Large or Middle Whites. Such pigs are of 
the most prolific sort, and produce a pork of unex¬ 
celled quality. The simple fact alone of ability to re¬ 
produce has much to do with the profits in swine 
raising, and there is sufficient evidence to demon¬ 
strate that the very fat type is the least prolific, and 
makes the poorest mothers. British meat dealers do 
not think the Americans, as they call them, will 
change their methods very much. One bright and 
fair-spoken Englishman said to me, “The Americans 
are too independent to do what the English people 
want. The Canadians come over here to study the 
market, listen to our criticisms, and say, ‘We will go 
home and act on your suggestions.’ The American 
says, ‘I will see, but if you don’t take our goods there 
are others that will.’ ” That, perhaps, expresses a 
prevalent sentiment. Nevertheless, one thing is true, 
and that is, if the United States desires a strong mar¬ 
ket for her products in Britain, they must cater to 
the desires of the buyers. 
Some may perhaps think that the English trade dis¬ 
criminates against the American. I rather doubt this. 
To-day no people are as popular in Great Britain as 
Yankees, who are generally given a cordial welcome 
by their trans-Atlantic cousins, who talk freely about 
our mutual interests, etc. Yet Danish, French and 
Dutch bacon command high prices in England. It Is 
simply because we do not deliver the kind of goods 
wanted. Do we wish to? c. s. plumb. 
A YANKEE'S TRIP IN CANADA. 
We Yankees are apt to think of Canada as a cold, 
inhospitable country with nine months Winter and 
the rest early in Spring and late in Fall. No greater 
mistake can be imagined. I was employed over there 
in institute work for three months last Winter, and 
have traveled quite extensively and mingled freely 
with the people. I have been much over our own 
country and seen the farmers and how farming is 
done in many of the States, and can truthfully say 
that the farmers’ houses in Canada will average better 
than in any part of the United States. They are quite 
largely of brick and have a look of stability and com¬ 
fort about them that is very commendable to the good 
sense and thrift of the farming community. There is 
also a very much larger proportion of barns with good 
basement stables than can be found in any like area 
of the United States. 
The school houses as a rule are good substantial 
brick buildings, far better as a class than they will 
average in any of our communities. The teachers are 
employed permanently and not as with us by the 
single term, and, of course, have the incentive to keep 
up with the times. The farmer is a bright, wide¬ 
awake, hard-working fellow, and has sense enough to 
know it won’t pay to put bogus things into the mar¬ 
ket. He growls a good deal at Uncle Sam for shutting 
him out of our markets for barley, but it was the 
greatest blessing that could have come to him, as he 
now feeds his barley, peas and oats to his cows and 
other stock, and, having a government with sense and 
honesty enough not to allow the making of skim 
cheese or oleomargarine, he is getting more money 
out of the product in cheese and butter, and is not 
robbing his lands. In no country in which I have ever 
been is the government doing so much for the farmer 
as in Canada. Hon. Sidney Fisher and Hon. John 
Dryden, the Dominion and Provincial Ministers of 
Agriculture, are always out among the farmers at 
breeders’ meetings, at institutes and all gatherings of 
farmers generally, alert to their wants and seeing how 
they can benefit them. 
Each branch or breed of live stock has its associa¬ 
tion, and these are all combined in a general live stock 
breeders’ association with which the Ministers are al¬ 
ways working in harmony. So powerful has this be¬ 
come that they have been able to secure a rate on 
purebred animals used for breeding purposes of less 
than half rate on common stock. The government 
assists in putting all dairy products in the old-country 
markets in the best form; they will not under any 
circumstances permit the making of skim cheese or 
bogus butter or oleomargarine even to be sold as 
such, and in case any shipment of butter or cheese 
is not up to the desired mark an instructor is at once 
sent to the factory in which it was made, and he stays 
until the trouble is discovered and remedied. It also 
employs several dairy inspectors whose duties are 
constantly to go from factory to factory to see that 
all are kept up to the highest excellence. 
Just now much attention is given to producing 
bacon suitable for export trade. The government pro¬ 
vided suitable photographs and charts showing the 
kind of bacon demanded by the market, the kind of 
pigs to produce it, and insisted on the farmer being 
instructed in the best way to feed and handle the pig 
to make the most desirable bacon at the maximum 
profit. A fat stock, dairy and poultry show was held 
last December at London, Ont., under direction of the 
government, and at which it insisted every institute 
worker should be present to see the animals judged, 
killed and cut up, and to listen to experts who lec¬ 
tured on each point. The government is also very 
liberal in its support of the college and experiment 
stations, and it has now in hand what is called an 
experimental union, in which 3,000 or 4,000 separate 
experiments are conducted by as many persons all 
over the Province of Ontario, the results of which are 
collected by the college for the benefit of the farmers. 
In institute work no country is doing more, or as 
much with the same money. In each “Riding,” equi¬ 
valent to our Assembly districts, at least four must 
be held each year. Many nold up to eight and 10, and 
the farmers make it a point to drop all business and 
go to the institute, and woe be to the poor fellow 
who attempts to lecture on a subject on which he is 
not thoroughly well-posted. Altogether our Cana¬ 
dian cousin is a wideawake, progressive, hospitable, 
up-to-date farmer, and the more we mingle among 
them and learn that honesty pays in dairy matters 
the better it will be for us. J. 8. woodward. 
No use talking, the Chenango Strawberry apple beats 
them all. To be sure, I live in Chenango County, but try 
the apple and you will agree with me, I think. It is not 
quite so early as the Early Harvest, or Red Astrachan, 
but much superior in flavor, not being so sharp or sour. 
B. H. L. 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—The entire village of Coloma, Mich., was 
struck by lightning September 4, many buildings being 
injured. The storm damaged much property throughout 
the State.September 6, immense forest fires were 
reported on two sides of Buffalo, Wyo. A new fire had 
broken out near the north fork of Powder River, and 36 
sections of fine timber were destroyed.As a re¬ 
sult of numerous highway robberies on street car lines 
in Omaha, Neb., the car companies have offered a reward 
of 1500 for any dead bandits, and $250 for live ones de¬ 
livered to the county jail.English capitalists 
purpose competing with the Standard Oil Company, hav¬ 
ing secured options on 1,000,000 acres of oil-producing land 
in Wyoming.An earthquake at Lituya Bay, 
Alaska, August H, did a vast amount of damage, and 
killed five Indians.The tropical hurricane which 
reached the Florida coast September 6-7 caused much 
damage to shipping. The same storm caused great dam¬ 
age at Kingston, Jamaica, washing away miles of rail¬ 
way, and flooding banana plantations. It reached the 
Texas coast September 8-9, cutting it off from outside 
communication. A tidal wave swept over Galveston 
Island, destroying 4,000 houses in the city, leaving it in 
darkness, owing to destruction of the electric light plant, 
and filling the cisterns with salt water. The gale was 
worse than that which totally destroyed Indianola, Tex., 
in 1875. The total loss of life will remain unknown, but 
conservative estimates put it at 6,000. Houston suffered 
damage amounting to over $500,000. Galveston is situated 
on an island, and is but a few feet above sea level. It is 
asserted that the Government jetties aided largely in the 
destruction, as they prevented the water from spreading 
across the bay, and backed it up over the island. The 
wind had reached a velocity of 84 miles an hour when the 
measuring instruments were destroyed. The destruction 
of shipping is enormous, large vessels being driven two 
miles inland, while smaller craft have been swept in 10 
miles from sea. Damage was reported from 34 towns and 
cities, and the total property loss is put at $50,000,000. 
Acting Secretary of War Meiklejohn ordered the issue of 
10,000 tents and 50,000 rations for the refugees. The Gov¬ 
ernor of Texas has put Galveston island under martial 
law. A horde of negroes and whites began robbing the 
dead and dying, and drunken men intimidated the citizens, 
until the sale of liquor was stopped and soldiers began 
shooting the thieves. Many bodies are being buried at 
sea. The weather was extremely hot, and pestilence is 
likely to follow.The Maine State election Sep¬ 
tember 10 went Republican by 31,000. At Portland the 
Prohibitionists elected their candidate for Sheriff. 
September 11, the bursting of a steam pipe at the Baldwin 
Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, scalded seven men, 
killing two. 
PHILIPPINES.—Reports from Manila September 7 give 
details of a desperate mutiny among native prisoners in 
the Bilibid prison, which resulted in the death of four 
natives and the wounding of 15 others.A special 
board of army officers is investigating the condition of 
lepers in the Islands. There are said to be 30,000 of them, 
and it is necessary to found a colony for them. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—September 6 the Govern¬ 
ment received a report from Gen. Chaffee, which had been 
eight days in transmission from Peking. He states that 
the American troops made formal entry into the Forbid¬ 
den City August 28. Further reports confirm the asser¬ 
tions of treachery on the part of the Chinese govern¬ 
ment and the issuance of imperial decrees ordering the 
death of foreigners. Li Hung Chang has received full 
power to effect peace terms. The persecutions of Chris¬ 
tians continue in the interior. The number of English 
and American missionaries murdered is now put at 93; 
170 others are still unaccounted for.The plague 
is under control at Glasgow, Scotland, and alarm is sub¬ 
siding.In the frontier districts of New South 
Wales, several massacres by natives have terrorized the 
farmers. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—There was a very fine display 
of live stock at the Toronto (Canada) Industrial Exposi¬ 
tion. The dairy exhibit and butter-making contest at¬ 
tracted much attention. 
The Southern Inter-State Fair will be held at Atlanta, 
Ga., October 11-19. 
The next meeting of the New York State Poultry So¬ 
ciety will be held at Cortland, N. Y„ the third week in 
December, in connection with show and institute. 
Reports received September 7 from Sharpsdale, a small 
town near Mount Blanco, in southern Colorado, say that 
the feud over the use of the range, which has existed 
long between cattlemen and sheepmen, reached a climax 
when the cattlemen drove 3,000 sheep over a high preci¬ 
pice, killing nearly all of them. The trouble has grown 
out of the scarcity of water along the water courses. 
Where grass still remains the sheep were pastured, and 
after they had once passed over the ground cattle refused 
to eat on it, and either died or became very poor. It is 
said that the entire country has taken up arms. 
C. P. Root, owner of 20 butter and cheese factories in 
Otsego County, N. Y., died September 9 at his home in 
Gilbertsville, N. Y., aged 69. He was a veteran of the 
Civil War, in which he attained the rank of major. 
The War Department has decided to prohibit the graz¬ 
ing of sheep or cattle in the timber reserves. This order 
prevents the use of Rainier and Olympic timber reserves 
in Washington, and it is predicted that this will kill the 
sheep industry there. Sheepmen have made a strong 
fight against this order, but have been defeated. 
The International Live Stock Exhibition will be held at 
Chicago, Ill., December 1 to 8. 
The West Mississippi Agricultural and Live Stock Ex¬ 
position will be held at Vicksburg, Miss., November 13-17. 
Apple trees may grow all right on a steep hillside, but 
those who plant orchards should be more considerate of 
posterity than to put the trees on a piece of land that is 
too hilly to use for any other purpose, unless the varieties 
are Ben Davis or some similar sorts that can be safely 
shaken from the trees and allowed to roll into a windrow 
at the foot of the hill, as the man in the story harvested 
his pumpkins. Anyone who has wrestled with a ladder in 
an effort to gather a crop of apples from a side hill, will 
not be apt to punish his children by making a similar 
blunder with the young orchard that he sets out. 
