Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-01-10
THE PEIELOSOPHA' OF HEEE.

TIL hEALOSth-hhh OE bbEEs
The current cry of the British bcef-eators,
like poor little Oliver Tw list asking for
"more," recalls some interesting facts con-
corning animal food and its relations to civ
ilization. 1t has marked eras of national
progress and formed the basis of aristocrat-
ic distinction, and where monopolizcd by
guild as in the Florentine Republic, been
an influential organ of power. The meat
caters have always been a power in any
community, and perhaps no country in the
world has furnished so largely this Kind of
aliment to its population as the United
States, while in many older countries gen.
eral impoverishment has often made it
rarity.
In the dissoluto days of Rome, when her
aristocracy revealed in the accumulated
spoils of conquest, and men like Apicius
or Heliogabalus gave feasts, the extrava-
gance of which appears to have been their
chief merit, though still II matter of wond-
er, only the mobiles were permitted to use
pheasants and other wild game and domes-
tic fowl, butchers meat being considered
beneath their taste.
The privileged classes of Europe have
preserved to this day the right to control
game /; but the distinction has not prevent
ed them from learning long ago how to eat
their share of beef, mutton, and veal, while
the poor classes, who, for period cover
ing centuries rarely tasted meat, have been
gradually growing able to procure it. De-
mocracy, which De Tocqueville recognized
as a Providential fact not to be gainsaid,
however much disliked is spreading, and
with it is coming greater equality of condi-
ton and taste. Railroads and other means
of rapid communication contribute toward
the distribution of articles of food among
the many, and thereby stimulate produc-
ton.
In the United States, too, the people who
were once great eaters of salt pork have be-
come more and more fresh meat eaters,
and looking over the whole field of con-
sumption as well as production, in both
countries, it would appear that the sources
of supply are unequal to the increased de-
mand.
In Great Britain, notwithstanding the
theory of the land reformers who decry all
useless Enclosures and think production
would be sufficient if the soil were all a.
vailed of, it seems that the ultimate
limit has been approXimated in breed
ing and cultivation, and that exhaustion
would ensue upon the overcropping nee
essary to make a large supply. The con-
stantly increasing demand in that country
will have to be supplied from abroad.
On the continent of Europe the great de-
ficiency in cultivation left large room for
improvement, which void is being rapidly
filled, and notedly by one of the means of
future supply; namely, the cultivation of
beet-root sugar.
This cultivation has developed into a
new industry, and proved great source of
wealth the sugar being of excellent mar
ketable quality, while the leaf and pulp
left over from the manufacture feed and
fatten cattle to such an extent that in GER
tain previously barren localities of the
continent the cattle have increased nine
fold.
The undeveloped sources of supply for
butchers meat are as yet immense, chief
among which are our Western plains, the
pampas of South America, and the island
continent of Australia. The mutton of Aus
tralia is excellent in quality, the sheep be-
ing gigantic in proportions; while the beef
of the pampas in South America would
pay the producer at cost of even half-a-
cent a pound his present profit being
made from wool, hides, and fat.
The main difficulty is, how to get this
Il. - IL. 4
and fit to eat. Many inventive minds have
been devoted to the solution of this prob
lem and canning, extracting, and chemi-
cal preserving, have all been rcsorted to.
They have proved too expensive, even if
they had been satisfactory but the great
est obstacle to their success has been the
condition of the article when brought to
market. People will not eat fresh meat
with any popularity Of taste or smell re-
sulting from its mode of curing or propa-
ration.
Properly-built iron vessels carrying a
sufficient quantity Of ice will unquestona-
bly, solve the difficulty. In Russia ninety
five per cent. of the beef consumed in st.
Petersburg and Moscow is frozen beef
Fresh beef costs more, though it is all COM
paratively cheap, but the preference for
fresh beef over frozen is not so great as to
prevent a purchaser from choosing prime
bit of the latter over secondary article of
the former. At the close of the Winter
those having a stock of beef on hand often
keep ii over Summer in the ice houses. and
we are informed, by one of those who have
tasted it, that even at the end of the second
Winter he has 1t as good, if originally first
class, as much that we buy fresh in Wash
ington City.
In bringing beef from Texas an expert
ment already begun with some success,
what is wanted in the vessel Is slight
draught of water and large refrigerating
capacity. The ingenuity which has given
US Mississippi steamboats, should be able
to supply these.
The plains over which millions of bison
roam, each consuming and wasting as
much rs would feed ten head of herdod