The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-20 00:00:00

How Our Meat Supply is Wasted.

Just now, when the price of butchers' meat is a
question of such serious importance, attention may
very properly be directed to one most fruitful source
of disease among cattle ; we refer to the mode 01
which they are conveyed from one part of the,
country to another. As a simple question o',
humanity the matter wants looking into, but
its results are not less important in an economical'
point of view. The rinderpest which frightened 101
so much last year is, like the cholera among wan:
kind, far less destructive than other diseases wine's
are constantly prevalent. This fact is shown Yell
strikingly in an appendix to a report published by
Mr. M'Call, Principal of the Glasgow Veterinari
College, on the structure and condition of the diaries
and cattle-sheds within the police bounds of that
city. The appendix shows that the actual and direct
loss in money value from rinderpest last year
is
Glasgow, cvlien summed up, amounts to £8,975
10s. ; the amount realised from sale of carcases OS
£2,050 18s. 4d. ; and the number of beasts returned as
having died and been buried was 416. On the other
hand, the loss from "puerperal fever" amounts t'CIA
£7,021 95., from pleuro-pucumonia £54,677, an
from murrain £7,314. Now the greatest loss froak
pleuro-pneumonia, lung disease, and, we may add'
murrain, is among Irish and other travelled
cattle,
and it is easy to see how this comes about. How are
Irish cattle brought to this country? We may sup'
pose a dealer has bought a number of lots in different
places, which must reach a point for shipment At a
given time. The lots which arrive earliest may P°s-
sibly gets rest and refreshment ; but for the re-
mainder even water is out of the question. The
poor brutes are hurried from the railway trucks to
the steamer, to be thrust into the hold as fast as
screwing of tails and thrashing can force then 3•
Here, for 30 or 40 hours it may be, they are kept
huddled together without food or drink, and almost
without air to breathe. On landing they are drive:
from the steamer, or very likely hauled out by means
of ropes, and hurried off to another station, again
r
to be confined in trucks for a number of 11°14s
longer. The next ordeal to be undergone by the
wretched beasts is to be exhibited for sale at 80m0
fair or market, when the same disregard of theca
fin
necessities is shown, and when at last they d
purchaser, as likely as not, another long journeY
rail, to be made under the same conditions as before'
awaits them. The sufferings of the poor famishe
and starving animals are shocking to think of,ait
it requires no skill iu veterinary science to make
alt.
apparent that disease must be the inevitable res
the
As a matter of fact many beasts do perish oa
1 •
journey, or as soon as they reach the end of
co..
Those dying in transitu, when the deaths are
uce,
dently caused by the conditions of the conveY,3 the
are raid for by the railway companies, a""
Itch
owner is thus saved from loss, but there is so 1-11 A
of the actual food supply of the nation deet,,,re_Yeehij:
A lot of 24 bullocks forwarded by rail to. AY 1°
ht
field, in Hampshire, were four days and "Igs
Two
the journey in trucks, without food and water',
Out of the 24 died on the way. A lot of she-K0 wore
carried
shipped were sent also to Winchfield. 1.11"):„rried
shipped from Glasgow on a Tuesday, were
arrived
on the Wednesday about 7 p.m., and they
at Winchfield station on the Friday night follow'__the
ing, about 8 p.m. One of these had diedu,Dyboo
way, and it is pretty certain that others w.O theia
shared the same fate had not the owners glv,, vrasa,
full 14 hours' rest near Glasgow on go"..Zolial
where they had also plenty of water—an eluvroesible
of the,P which
piece of humanity. We say nothing
consequences of eating the flesh of anilna2s_cribed.
have just been subjected to the treatment
clot hay°
Although symptoms of actual disease ina.Yr idesh can
made their appearance in the beasts, thei
_ll n.nlaii
hardly be wholesome humau food.—-4"
GarWitee