The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-11-21
From the New York Bulletin, 18Th.
The Pork Trade-Ece.Pac cking vs..
Winter Packing.

| tain representations respecting the condi-
tion of the pork-packing interest In that
city which we can hardly reconcile with
| the usual careful accuracy of that journal.
Abiding 70 the recent growth Of summer
packing. it intimates that the old winter
packers are being displaced by the new ele-
nent, with consequent ruinous losses, and
that the custom of packing in the winter
must entirely give way to system of curing
all the year round, ice being used in the
process during the seven or eight months
when the natural tenn mperatlre is not sufi-
| ciently low for curing operations. The
Price Current says:
| at is no longer profitable to salt away
meat in the winter to sell in summer. In
fact, it may almost be said that it is not
longer necessary to salt and lay aside meat
| in winter at all any more than ut any other
season, there being, however, few weeks
| in the heated term of summer when it is
not necessary nor desirable to handle or
usc much meat. Swine arc fattened more
conveniently ard more economically in the
fall weather, and then transportation can
/ be done twenty per cent. cheaper. Fresh
icc-cured meat is brighter, swcetcr, and
sells higher for several Of the leading quail
ties than the dry, highly saltcd winter
cured. Ice-houSes have been constructed
at many western points, where packing
continues constantly and safely all the sum-
mcr. The extra cost of cold air from ice is
being rapidly reduced, and is already cost
! ing less than tie expense Of holding meat
over from wiRtcr TO summer. This state Of
affairs has completely upset the old busi-
ness by which the wealth Of the pork
packing business has been acquired"
| Does not our contemporary draw very
sweeping conclusions from slender pre-
miseS? The ice-curcd meat undoubtedly
/ hns nfn vil liph fyi>-o ~ ,Srn n
with CONSUMERS, VINO thus far have proved
willing to pay on an average one and 4 half
cents per pound more for it. But to con-
cllldc that The se advantages are such a. will
cause ice.packing to superSede the old me-
thod appears TO Us quite unwarranted by
the facts and probabilities of the case. 1t
| may be true enough TO say that the cost CT
using ice has been reduced when that re.
suit comes about through an unusually
abundant ice crop, tut how would that
| item stand upon an estimate Of the average
Irrice of ice. If this were not au impor-
lant question for the West, it would be at
least for the packers Of New York and
Philadelphia. where the supply of ice now
tluctualcs very widely. The Price. Current
lconccGc> that swine are fattened more con-
veDicntly aud more economically in fall
! weather, the period just preceding the
season when packing is done under the Old
system. Does not this very important fact
determine almost irrespective of other con-
EsiderationS that The period for curing the
meat is the winter, and not the spring,
summer, and early fall, az our contempo-
rary advocates? This admission directly
implies that it would cost more to feed
| hogs for icc-curipg; which is well-nigh a
concession Of the whole question. 1t is
| further conceded by our contemporary that
| thclc are a few weeks in the summertime
| len weeks of the heated term-duriDg which
it IS "uUt desirable TO handle or use much
| meat" and it might lave been added that.
| during that period, all the ice. cured pork
held over from the production Of the pre-
ccdlng few weeks would inevitably spoil
SO thlt there are nearly four consecutive
months during which ice-cu:ing is vlrtu-
ally impractiu.ble. And further, this be-
| ing the case, if the Wiutcr-packlnG is su-
p9rscdcd, how are the markets, especially
| the ii tant ones, to be supplied during the
weeks succeeding this period in which
packing Is impracticahIe 1t is clear that
The adoption Of ice.curing in lieu Of the
old method would cause irregularities in
the supply which could not be tolerated.
5icrcuver, the Price Current is widely
| mistaken III It's statement rs To the increase
In icc-packng at Cincinnati. 1t is true, we
presume, that reilly more of that kird Of
curing WIS done in 1S10-'71 than in the
year preceding, but it is also true that the
increase did not at all keep pace with the
increase of the hog crop last year. The
whole number Of hogs cut in Cincinnati
during the last packing season was 800, ,0GG,
against o3I 1880 the year preyious-an in
crease Of about fifty per cent. Yet we find
that during the thirty-eght weeks from
the beginning Of September to the 22d of
October, 1870, and from the end Of january
to the 2Gth Of August, 1871, the total rccei pts
Of hogs at that city were 204, 45l, against
IFS, ,420 in the preceding year-an increase
of but IS per cent; and as the ice-packing
had to bc done out Of these receipts, we
are justified in concluding thlt the increase
! in The ice-curing truuc was in about the
SINE limited ratio. The truth, therefore,
| is that, taking into account the increase in
| the whole pork trade Of the city last year,
there was in the Price CtTrcnt's pet branch
an important relative decrease. Whcle,
then. DO we find the Progress in ice-pack-
| ing which is to justify our sanguiDe con-
Itcmporary's prophecy that it is about to
supeIse winter packing? The facts
rather prophecy in the opposite direction.
The fact that the old packers lost money
! on last years production, and that they
have lqtely had to clear out stock at heavy
sacrifices, is not in any measure due to the
competition OF the newer branch Of pack
| Ing, but TO the winter. packers having been
perhaps too sansuine in buying their hogs,
aud still more to the prospect of another
abundant crop both here and abroad
ordinary incidents of the trade. This eX-
| pcr:cnce, however, ought to teach them a
Wholesome lesson, to be applied i'll the
season now setting in.
We have no doubt that hereafter there
will be steady demand for ice cured pork,
l I,,,t ; ha must no pnptipp1 tn
the be,t home trade and to those foreign
markets where it can pass into consump.
ton within sixty days after it is cured and
| this limitation will leave the bulk OF the
trade to the old-styie packers.