174 
•Px RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 24, 1920 
Statements from Food Authorities 
Nearly every week we have letters from 
people who ask where they can sell horse 
meat. Somehow the belief has got abroad 
that large quantities of horse meat are 
consumed by city people. Quite frequent¬ 
ly farmers write that they have just 
killed an old horse. They want to know if 
they can wrap the carcass in burlap and 
send it to New York or elsewhere to be 
used as human food. There has been so 
much of this that we have made a full 
investigation of the markets. Reports 
from Boston, Mass., Cleveland, O., Chi¬ 
cago. Ill., Pittsburgh. Pa., and Indianap¬ 
olis, Ind., show that no horse meat is sold 
in these cities. The health commission¬ 
ers of other cities write us as follows : 
At the present time no horse meat is be¬ 
ing sold in the city of Philadelphia, al¬ 
though the slaughtering of horses and the 
sale of horse meat is permissible in the 
State of Pennsylvania according to the 
act of Assembly. wilmer krusen. 
Philadelphia. 
We maintain an inspection of the two 
establishments that are now slaughtering 
horses here as to their sanitary conditions. 
All persons dealing in horse meat are re¬ 
quired to sell it as such and to display 
signs to that effect in stores or on wagons 
in which it is transported. Almost with¬ 
out exception foreigners consume this meat 
knowingly; no doubt a number of Amer¬ 
icans eat it unknowingly. I believe the 
use of horse meat is likely to increase, 
and I do not see why it should not. as 
such meat is undoubtedly wholesome, as 
much as beef or mutton, provided proper 
animals are slaughtered. G. A. JORDAN. 
St. Louis, Mo. 
The city is consuming approximately 
10,000 lbs. of horse meat a mouth, chiefly 
used by Austrian-Hungarian people. The 
consumption seems to be falling off lately, 
due, I believe, to the declining price of 
beef and pork. I do not believe there 
will be an appreciable increase unless the 
prices of other meats go up. 
This department has done a great deal 
to urge its sale, and strict precautions 
are taken in regard to the class of ani¬ 
mals slaughtered for this purpose. Ani¬ 
mals are all subjected to an ante-mortem 
inspection and the mullein (ophthalmic 1 
test is applied, and then all animals are 
posted at the time of slaughter, and if the 
meat is found to be from sound and 
healthy animals it is stamped with a 
Health Department stamp, showing that 
this meat has been inspected and passed 
for food purposes. Horse meat has been 
used in the past two years feeding the ani¬ 
mals at the zoo, with very good success. 
Milwaukee, Wis. h. h. bryant. 
During the war this meat was used to 
some extent, and while we had no ordi¬ 
nance covering the sale of it, this depart¬ 
ment requested that dealers should make 
applications before the animals were 
killed, and that the meat should be held in 
storage at least three days, so that in¬ 
spectors could determine its fitness for 
human consumption. c. c. chilson. 
Detroit, Mich. 
Horse meat is not on sale in the city of 
Buffalo. Our slaughter houses are under 
supervision daily, and no horses are being 
slaughtered therein. Two or three years 
ago attempt was made to market the meat 
of one or two horses as beef, and prose¬ 
cution of the offender ensued. We are 
not averse to the sale of horse meat if 
slaughtering and haudliug is done Tinder 
our supervision and the meat is sold as 
such, but so far as we are able to dis¬ 
cover, there is no demand for horse meat 
in this city. S. w. BATESON. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
In New York City an experiment was 
tried in selling this meat, but the plan 
was finally abandoned. The reasons for 
this are given below: 
One slaughter house for horses was 
opened in the city; it was located in 
Brooklyn. Its weekly business amounted 
to approximately 2,100 lbs. of meat. Of 
this amount, 2,100 lbs. were sold to the 
zoological parks in Bronx and Brooklyn. 
One wholesale and retail establishment, 
engaged in preparing, preserving and man¬ 
ufacturing sausages made of horse flesh, 
handled, approximately, 2.500 lbs. of meat 
weekly. Two entirely retail establish¬ 
ments, one located in Brooklyn and the 
other in lower Manhattan, completed the 
trade. The prevailing prices for horse 
meat have been approximately two-thirds 
of that of beef, perhaps owing to the - 1 all 
amount sold. Consumers were e r rely 
from that portion of our foreign ■ infla¬ 
tion which was accustomed to us-: horse 
flesh in its native count’v. 
As an illustration of l : limite d number 
of horses available, and t te r condition, it 
is mentioned that between October S and 
December 28. 1918, 244 lior-as aud four 
mules were presented for slaughter, and 
188 of these were passed foe food pur¬ 
poses. Of the rejections 23 were for glan¬ 
ders, two for pneumonia and one for sar¬ 
coma. 
The action of the Board of Health was 
taken as the experiment demonstrated 
that there is a comparatively small de¬ 
mand in New York City for horse flesh, 
and that the-number of animals available 
for slaughter is very limited. In fact, all 
those offered have been horses damaged in 
some way, by injury or old age, and 
which are no longer of use for draught 
purposes. Great care is required in ex¬ 
amining them, both before and after 
slaughter, in order to determine w r hether 
use of their flesh for food is safe. For 
purposes of these examinations the de¬ 
partment was obliged to maintain a spe¬ 
cial staff, the expense of which it does not 
deem justifiable, in the circumstances. 
Hay on a Concrete Floor 
One of our readers in Maine asks if hay 
will keep well without growing musty on 
a cement or concrete floor. He is think¬ 
ing of making the bottom of his haymow 
of concrete, but he is not sure just what 
the effect of it will be. 
I have never had any experience or ob¬ 
servation of the use of concrete for the 
bottom of haymows, but judging from the 
way that hay molds and discolors Avhen 
placed directly on dry ground, or even on 
light board floors without very abundant 
ventilation beneath, I feel perfectly sure 
that concrete is totally unfitted for the 
purpose suggested. I feel sure that the 
loss will be very serious. .Tust let me add 
that even a board floor must provide for 
very abundant circulation of air under¬ 
neath if it is to be really satisfactory. 
JARED VAN VAGEXEN, JR. 
Schoharie Co., N. Y. 
It would spoil on an ordinary concrete 
floor, but if there was a double concrete 
floor, like the moisture-proof ones used 
in henhouses it might not spoil, but that 
is only a guess. clark ai.lis. 
Orleans Co., N. Y. 
As these floors are commonly laid, the 
effect would be very bad. as with no ven¬ 
tilation under the hay it would be sure to 
be musty. This is my experience in a 
mow in my own barn w hich has a bottom 
of cement in one half and of gravel in the 
other half. The hay lying on the ground 
is as musty as that lying on the cement. 
There should be ventilation, but I would 
prefer the ventilation under the cement 
rather than by poles or plank above it. 
A friend of mine has the entire first 
floor of his barn laid on reinforced ce¬ 
ment over a basement, aud there is no 
trouble with musty hay. This would in¬ 
dicate that the trouble is rather lack of 
ventilation than the source of the foun¬ 
dation. b. walker M’keex. 
Maine. 
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