The Portland daily press., 1877-02-12
American Beef in Great Britain,

AmCAA DCCA HI OllbuluI
Ore of the most remarkable and important
developments of American skill and nter-
prise in the notable list of our Centennial
triumphs, although hardly noticed outside of
agricultural journals, was the successful ship
ment of fresh beef from the United States and
Canada to England and Scotland. The real be-
ginning and establishment of this new busi-
ness should be assigned to the year 1879, al
though the trial cargo arrive at Liverpool on
the preceding Christmas.
The holds or interior compartments of
ocean steamers are converted into immense
refrigerators, being Theoretically sealed and
cooled by masses of ice in adjoining rooms
A constant circulation of air from which the
moisture is taken, at an even temperature of
3S deg, is kept up between rooms By the use
of Tubes and pumping engine-the flavor of
the meat is not allowed to be injured by a
reduction Of the temperature to the freezing
point. The sides or quarters are sewed up in
cloth and thus suspended with great neatness
as in some large pantry. The ice used for
preserving the beef serves also for ballast and
at the end of the voyage is sold at cost.
The largest chamber isin the Guien steamer
Wyoming, which measures some $4,000 or
$4,000 cubic feet and is capable of holding
2000 to 5000 quarters of beef with a number
of sheep and swine in addition. The Anchor.
Guion and Allan lines are already engaged in
this business and the original shipper has
contracts with seventeen steamers, while
other persons are beginning to make ventures
elsewhere. From 10000 to $1,000 carcasses
have been exported from New York, mainly to
Liverpool and to London, Manchester, Bir-
mingham and other large cities; but more
recently large shipments have been made to
Glasgow.
All doubts with regard to the security of
this mode of preservation and transmission
have been entirely removed by years trial;
which was unusually severe ON account Of the
extreme heat of the lsst summer. A London
journal of July last, says: "The past week
has brought some consignments of American
beef representing several hundreds of tons, in
an excellent state of preservation, SURPRISING
that received from the provinces which ar
rived in such condition as to be in many
cases Immediately condemned" From a
September issue we learn that "The week
ending August 10 was remarkable for great
heat, the mean temperature exceeding the
average for the same week by no less than
10 deg. and yet we have no complaints of the
condition of the foreign meat that appeared
in the metropolitan market. Every obstacle
appears to be removed, the home trade mon
opoly broken through and meat from the far
West exhibited on the Newgate market
shambles during the tropical heat of this
summer, as perfect in.condition as meat sent
up from Leicester or York, in in finer
condition, ripened by having been slaugh-
tered fourteen days, tender and ready for the
table,"
The quality of the beef when compared
with the famous product of England and
Scotland may be inferred from the great
favor with which it has been received. The
Queen has written an autograph letter to an
American shipper, expressing her entire salts
faction with sample joint forwarded to her;
and the Prince of Wales, the Lord Mayor,
the Governor of the Bank of England, and
other persons of influence have endorsed her
opinion. Additional evidence comes from
the butchers, who unanimously pronounce
it "good sound beef;;' and from the working
class who crowd the shops where it is for
sale-cases being reported where hundreds
have gone away without being able to get
any. 1t may be considered as definitely set
tied that the wall of exclusion is broken
down and the home monopoly of beef in Eng
land is extinguished, and that the grass and
grain-fed product of this country may be
safely sent across the water, and that it will
remain staple article in foreign markets by
virtue of its intrinsic superiority and its lower
price. The sturdy bullock that snuffs the air
of the breezy prairie as defiant of all restraint
and artificial life, and as unaccustomed to
shelter as the most imperial of Landseer's
Monarch in the short space of fortnight
"Suffers sea change
Into something rich and strange"
and is thus translated to the table of Lon
don alderman, or very likely within the royal
precincts of Buckingham Palace, or Windsor
Castle. Well may an English writer assert
"That it is impossible to measure the effect
that this opening of the meat market will
have upon British agriculture, that the
herd and flock-masters of England will per-
ceive that it is always possible that the i'm
possible may happen" 1t would almost
ftot h. ~oI l., s4a Ial-
tics of English social life may be somewhat
endangered and perhaps revolutionized, and
were the ol songwriter and composer, Richard
Leveridge, back again, he would no doubt
hear sung in minor key and with a melan-
choly meaning which he never designed and
of which he little dreamed;
"Oh the roast beef of old Englandi
And oh! for old England's roast beef!''
The full significance Of this new develop.
ment we have not space to discuss, reaching
as it does into the domain of political econ
omy, as well as commerce and agriculture
From the foregoing statement, however, cur
conclusions and inferences are, that American
beef is the best in the world, and that
hereafter the wide world is to be
an open market not only for our
bacon, ham, salt pork and salt beef but for
our fresh beef, and fresh pork and mutton as
we'll. Possibly even, we may have sole en-
trance to the English market, as on account
of the prevalence of the rinderpest in Ger.
many the authorities are now taking vigor-
GUS measures to prevent its introduction from
the continent. 1t is also apparent that while
our expectations furnish better and whole.
somer article of food than the wealthy classes
even have had, it is also on account of its
comparative cheapness within the reach of
the laborer who rarely sees joint upon his
table.
In this country some of the results follow
ing this new opportunity will be an Increase
of stock raising, placing higher value upon
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