, 1880-03-15
American Meat and Wheat.

The cattle and meat trades naturally
attracted much of the Commissioners
attention. and they closely examined
the far Western stock yards, where cat
tie are loaded on the cars, and the
Philadelphia stock yards and abattoirs,
whence they are shipped to Europe as
live or dead meat, as the case may be,
and also the methods of preparing the
dead meat and "refrigerating and
packing it on the steamers. They were
charmed with the facilities given for
this traflc in Philadelphia, describing
the arrangements as complete, and the
abattoirs and yards as the most system
attic and cleanly they had ever seen on
either side of the ocean. The trade is
a large one here-live cattle from April
to September, and dead meat the rest
of the year. It is a new business,
being all the growth of the past four
years. Martin, Fuller b Co., the chief
shippers from Philadelphia, select the
finest cattle in thecountry for this trade,
refrigerate the meat for rty-eight
hours, so that the temperature is re-
duced to about 36 deg. or SS deg, keep
it at this temperature on tho ocean voy
age, and deliver it in this condition in
the great English markets Their ship
ments average 300 cattle or carcasses on
each steamer, the dead meat being
sent in quarters. They have sold it
delivered in the English markets as
low as Sd. per pound all round, and as
high as 615d. If it realizes Cd. per
pound, this they say will pay all the
expenses and give them living profit.
They prefer to send dead meat, because
with their live cattle they do not in
England get the returns they ought
from the hides and other products when
the meat is killed there, and they can
do much better with those products in
the United States. But they complain
that their dead meat is not handled
properly after it passes out of their
control in England. When they sell it
the meat is the finest that can be pro-
duced, and is in the best condition, but
it does not get to the consumer in Eng
land in this way. They say it is almost
universal there to sell their good pieces
as cut from English or Irish cattle, and
to call inferior meat, wherever raised,
" American" This examination dem
onstrated that the finest American meat
can thus be sold dressed in the London
dead meat market at Sd. or Cd. per
pound wholesale and as the supply
seems practically limitless on this side,
the English farmer will have to COM
pete with this price for some time to
come.
When such is the condition of affairs
it will be seen how readily the Commits
sioners can ascertain and report facts and
statistics, and how difficult it will be
for them to report remedies. But upon
one thing England may depend. The
government has sent out for this pur-
pose men who will ascertain all that
can be learned on these important sub
jects. They have found the Americans
courteous and anxious to aid them in
every possible way in the matters of
inquiry, this being the case wherever
they have gone and made the object of
their visit known. They regard Phila-
delphia as rather the cheapest port for
foreign shipments, the elements con-
ducing to this being a shorter railway
line from tho West, more complete
terminal system for transfer between
railway and steamer. and lower port
expenses for vessels. But they are lost
in admiration at the vastness of every
thing in the United States, and the
enormous scale on which traffic is done,
and will go homo with very favorable
impression not only of American kind.
ness, but also of American ability to
maintain competition.-Phil. Cor. Lon
don Times.