The Northern Pacific farmer., 1883-08-30
COLD MUTTON.
How Tons of 1t Are Brought to Eng
land From the Antipodes.


How Tons of it Are Brought to Eng
land From the Antipodes.
Pail Mall Gazette, London. :: ,.f:-;:tl;
If any one desires novel sensations
let him leave the haunts of the West
End line and penetrate the regions
of the east to where Lady Joce-
lyn, ship of over 900 tons burden, is
now dischargine her cargo of frozen
mutton in the Victoria dock. The
Great Eastern railway takes you there
from Fenchurch street in less than half
an hour. and in return for your trouble,
it the 5000 carcasses of sheep which
lately arrived in her direct from Yelling
ton, New Zealand; are not already land
ed and sent off to Smithteld. you will De-
hold the solution of one of the problems
ofthe age-the,' question, namely the sup
ply of the London markets with fresh
meats from the antipodes. It is only two
years since;this'new trade began. It costs
$4,000 to fit ship like the Lady Joce-
lyn with refrigerating apparatus, with the
result that rooms are provided for some
200 or 300 tons of cargo at temperature
which. during three months voyage,
quite regardless of the heat of the trop-
les through which the vessel sails after
rounding Cape Horn, is never allowed
to rise above freezing point, and is for
the most part below it. The dock-labor
ers, as they work at the task Of unload
ing, pause now and again to blow on
their hands, for they are working in the
climate ofan English Christmas or New
Zealand July. The carcasses each wrap
ped in a neat white shroud OF sacklng,
and that again coated over with thick
hoar frost, are hard as stones. Though
the main cargo is mutton, beef lss aisn
represented, and some turkeys and fish
have also been thrown in, so that Lon
doners may know what "schnappers':
taste like ,and investigate the merits o.
"king fish." But the main lntereEt O.
the cargo lies, of course, in the i,O'C od@
sheep which four months ago were bleat'
ing in New Zealand, and are now, we
are told, selling for seven pence pound
as fresh mutton to the butchers in Smith
field. The carcasses weigh sixty five to-
eighty pounds. The sheep are cross
between the small merino ram and the
larger Leicester eve. The mutton is
said to be excellent, and some Of 1t has
no doubt appeared on West End tables
The trade evidently admits Of great de-
velopment.
To return, however, to our ship. EcH,
is the cold produced? It is produced
by steam engine of 115- horsepower,
which, setting in motion "dry-air pro-
cess" machine, fills with intense cold an
interval which left between the sides
of the iced rooms and the sides of the
ship, and also fills various channels Oh
fues which cross and recross these ma
rine larders. To maintain the required
temperature the engine has to be kept
going thirteen hours out of the twenty
four, and consumes each day about two
and half tons of coal. The burning
question among the shippers is whether
the new trade, which will plainly be
large one, will be best worked by steam
or by SAIL Probably experience only
will decide. There is much to be said
on both sides. A steamer would per
form the journey in little more thar
half The time empl loyed by sailing ship;
on the other hand, the Lady tocelyns
cargo has arrived in much better con-
dition than that ofa steamer, the B:',:Sf
King, which preceded her by few
weeks.