The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1877-05-16
agricultural Department.
W. S. SHIELDS, EDITOR.
The Foreign Meat Trade.

Live Stock Record
The. American Agriculturist, for
May, has an interesting article I'M
der the above heading, from which
We CLEAN:
The scale on which the cattle are
weighed has a capacity for 100000
pounds, which is equal to the weight
Of so head Of 1000 pounds each.
The best cattle only are accepted
for this trade, and a majority of
them will weigh 1900 pounds each.
After weighing. the drove is taken
to the slaughter pens. The method
of preparing the carcass is very
simple. a steer hitched to a rope
by the hind legs, is instantly hoisted
out Of the pen on to the dressing
room, killed-and cut into halves.
The beef is permitted to hang in a
room several hours to cool. Then
the quarters are sewed up in canvass,
removed to the refrigerator in the
ship, and hung up, The refrigerator
is an air-tight room, lined with nom
conducting felt, and in the centre of
it there is an ice-house. A fan,
driven by a steam engine drives a
current into the ice-house, which is
made cold by being forced out from
the bottom of the ice-chamber; and
after making the meat cool, it is
forced out through a door, and again
driven through the ice, and also
through the meat-room. The mOis-
ture gathered by the air in the meat
room is condensed in pipes, and es-
capes with the waste water from the
ice through drain. By this system
of means the air is cooled, dried and
purified and the meat kept in a
perfectly natural condition through
out its entire passage over the
ocean.
The favor with which fresh meats
are received in England proves that
the Americans will be able to in
crease this method Of expectation
as long as they have the animals to
put on the market. Our surplus of
beef is disposed of in this way; and
as long as we have surplus we may
calculate on its consumption by this
foreign market. The profit of the
business, so far, shows that it will
continue, and even increase. Here
is a new opportunity for the sale of
all the beef and mutton the Ameri-
can people can produce; and the
fact ought to stimulate this kind of
industry throughout the vast area Of
our country. Fresh meat can be
carried to other countries than En-
gland. by the same means; and if
the mass of farmers would only in
crease the weight of their cattle and
sheep by jndicious crossings of
breeds, they would indeed find a
large remuneration for their labor.
Every year makes the civilized ma
tions of the earth more and more
correlative in production and con-
sumption Of the neccessaries and
comforts of life and this fact will
necessarily stimulate the entire
agricultural industry of the North !
American continent, and hasten the |
development of all our resources, !
as compared with past ages.
It seems to us that agriculture |
must receive q vast impetus in the |
next decade that men will entertain |
more intelligent views of tillage and !
stock growing everywhere; and it
is from this that we confidently hope |
for a vast progress in the social con
dition of mankind. An occupation |
which is so elementary as that of
agriculture at once under |
lies and sopports all others, which |
is the supreme condition of ciyiliza-
ton itself in its broadcast sense, must |
surely be the chief industry of the |
most advanced classes in every coun-
try /; and form unique condition for /
the moral, as well as the pecuniary |
we'll being of society. Ignorance is
impotence knowledge is power.
And the knowledge of natural laws
will prove to be the glad news of the
world-a deliverance from ten thou
sands evils of which we now CON-
plain. A farm is the best material
possession in the world. It is the |
means Of plenty, health and virtue.
If the spirit of homelife could but
take the place of the present spirit |
Of speculation, and the law of labor
were accepted as the supreme con-
dition of all true happiness, we
might indeed hope for new era in
all respects. Let young men choose
the farm rather than the professions,
or the branches of the mercantile
business; let them work and hope,
and hope and work and compe-
tence lies ahead, with peace and the
Joys of domestic life.