San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-11-30

nal seaboard cities, the oIuiii"iy
weather of the cold season OF the year
being depended upon exclusively ior
keeping such meat sound irom the
time of its being slaughtered IN the
west until it reached the consumer IN
the east. A large amount OF the peei
thus treated often became frozen as
hard as severely cold weather could
freeze it, condition which always
impairs the quality of fresh meat TO a
certain extent. The advent OF the
spring season always put stop to
this kind of a trade in beef; but as
this is an age of improvement reirig'
orator cars were brought into use for
the shipment of beef carcasses' and
after full experiment was made with
these, it was found that dressed beef
could be shipped and kept in perfect
condition during any month IN the
wear, and for the past eight or ten
wears this system of shipping dressed
beef has been coming into common
use, until the business has assumed
formidable proportions.
Here at Chicago, Swift Bros. are
slaughtering and shipping $50 cattle
daily in this way. They have their
own refrigerator cars, and make Their
whole business at every point move
like clock-work. Messrs. Hammond
& Co., at Hammond, fifteen miles from
the Union stock yards, carry on
heavy business of the same KIND IN
the same way. Both of these estab b.
lishments ship mainly to New Eng
land, where they find ready sale Tor
all the beef they ship, because OF the
good quality of the cattle they slaughi-
ter, and the splendid condition in
which their beef reaches the markets
Nelson Morris is also prepared Tor
shipping beef in this way, when 1t
suits his purpose to do SO. Altogether
the shipping of dressed beef from CHI
cago to the seaboard markets has now
become very formidable branch OF
trade. A large slaughtering establish
ment has lately been erected at Sher-
man, on the Union Pacific, for slaugh-
tering and shipping dressed beef to
Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburg, or any
other desirable market, and a tormld,
able company with a heavy capital
has lust been organized to carry on
the same kind of business between
Texas and any or all of the chief con-
Stunning markets of the north. Large
chill rooms are being fitted up in Bal
timore, New York and other eastern
cities to receive such beef from the
cars that carry it to such markets and
keep it in perfect condition until sold
It now looks as if this is one OF the
revolutions that is never to 60 back,
wards. Last week a representative Of
Hayper's Weekly was here with view
of making pictorial sketches OF the
different grades of beef that are BENG
shipped in this way from this point
for that widely and well known perl
odical. This artist told us that he
had become well satisfied that the
shipping of beef in the carcass was IN
the near future to become very gen.
eral all over the country, and they
wanted to give the new system an
early recognition for the benefit OF
their readers. ;, -
This new departure has been OF late
causing great deal of excitement
among the butchers of Baltimore,
New York, and other cities, as 1t kills Is
their trade in beef effectually; but all
this is nothing more than has hap
pened in every trade revolution that
has taken place in the country. There
are several strong advantages IN favor
of this method of carrying beef from
the place of production to the consum-
ing markets. A single car carries
twice as many dressed carcasses as
live cattle, and where the beef is han
died with strict care from first to last
it is always in better condition for
consumers use than where 1t IS
slaughtered and sold before the ami
NAL heat leaves it. There is vast
amount of abuse saved to the ANIMALS
in shipping, The bruising and starry
ing of cattle while in transit between
the places of production and consump-
ton is one of the crying evils of the
day. The new system affords a rem
edy for all this. Beef in the carcass
can be shipped in perfect condition
from Chicago to Liverpool or London,
thus saving the abuse and risk IN
shipping cattle alive over the long
land route and sea voyage. From
our standpoint in all this matter we
are only looking at and dealing with
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