FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS. 
159 
H OME Production of Meat. —It is believed that, with¬ 
out any larger consumption of sheep and cattle food than at 
present, we may so augment our annual home production of 
meat that the increase would exceed our total yearly impor¬ 
tation. To secure this grand result all that we require is 
a reasonable measure of success in saving from destruction 
those wasted portions of our flocks and herds which, after 
being reared and fed upon valuable food, now perish by pre- 
ventible diseases. If legal regulations against the travelling 
or exposure in fair or market of animals suffering from cattle 
plague, pleuro-pneumonia, foot-and-mouth disease, small-pox, 
scab, &c.; if sanitary regulation of the transit of animals by 
ship, railway, or road ; if compulsory isolation or slaughtering 
in some cases; if separation of store stock from fat stock, 
and if separation of imported from home-bred animals were 
moderately successful in repressing contagious diseases, we 
might easily improve our home supply till the increase was 
equivalent to a doubling of the importation ; or, in other 
words, to an additional 5 per cent, of the consumption.— 
Chamber of Agriculture Journal. 
Characters of Good Meat. —Dr. Letheby, who has 
had great special experience during several years in the city 
of London, describes the following as the characters of good 
meat:—1. It is neither of a pale pink colour nor of a deep 
purple tint; for the former is a sign of disease, and the latter 
indicates that the animal has not been slaughtered, but has 
died with the blood in it, or has suffered from acute fever. 
2. It has a marbled appearance from the ramifications of little 
veins of fat among the muscles. 3. It should be firm and 
elastic to the touch, and should scarcely moisten the fingers 
—bad meat being wet, and sodden, and flabby, with the fat 
looking like jelly or wet parchment. 4. It sliould have little 
or no odour, and the odour should not be disagreeable ; for 
diseased meat has a sickly cadaverous smell, and sometimes 
a smell of physic. This is very discoverable when the meat 
is chopped up and drenched with warm water. 5. It should 
not shrink or waste much in cooking. 6. It should not run 
to water or become very wet on standing for a day or so, but 
should, on the contrary, be dry upon the surface. 7. When 
tried at a temperature of 212° or thereabouts, it should not 
lose more than from 70 to 74 per cent, of its weight, whereas 
bad meat will often lose as much as 80 per cent. Other 
properties of a more refined character will also serve for the 
recognition of bad meat, as that the juice of the flesh is alka¬ 
line or neutral to test-paper, instead of being distinctly acid; 
