Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-01-11
Ideal Meat.

sneep nave long sought TO place before
the world the greatest possible quantity
of palatable meat at the least possible
cost. To this end the bone has been re-
duced until it is now as fine as it seems
prudent to make it; the growth of flesh
OH the more valuable parts has been en-
couraged, by long continued and skill
full effort, until those parts now greatly
exceed the size and weight they former
ly attained, and the proportionate
weight of the internal organs has been
reduced materially. For this breeders
deserved all the credit given them, but
they seemed to have overlooked an i'm
portant circumstance in transferring
their skill to America. English taste
may perhaps tolerate the use of Over-fat
beef and mutton, but in this country
the consumer will not willingly pay the
price of good meat for tallow. The
American stomach revolts against tai
low; possibly there is that in our eli
mate which forbids the use of large
quantities of such matter for food.
There is popular idea that the Eng
lsh are gross eaters, and that they pre-
fer to eat tallow. 1t may be that he
will at home eat a greater quantity than
he can be induced to use after he has
spent few months in this country, but
the butcher even in England has found
himself compelled to throw under the
counter goodly percentage of the tai
low bought on. his over-fat, or "ripe :"
beasts. His poorer customers may buy
fat, because they have an erroneous no
ton that it is economy to do so; the
children will not eat as many ounces of
it as they would of nutritious flesh, so
that pound of tallow lasts long time,
and seems to be cheaper than good
meat. The more intelligent customers
demand that the most of the fat shall be
cut away from their steaks and roasts
before weighing, but they do not escape
paying for the waste matter. The
, butcher must, of course, charge enough
for the flesh to give him profit. The
loss through overwhelming is borne by
the consumer, and this seems but just,
for the old prejudice still exists in favor
of an oyer-ripe beast; aprejudice inher-
tied from savage ancestors who needed
fat food to help them resist cold from
which their miserable huts could not
protect them, and whose active, out
door life gave them the digestion of an
aconda. 1t is not impossible that the
weakened digestion of the present gen.
Grafton is in part the result of the gorg-
ing of fat by our forefathers.
To the breeder the word "ripe -
means loaded in fat. The ripe" bull
leck is one carrying outside of his flesh
as much tallow asart can pile upon the
living carcass. Without thick blanket
of tallow under the skin the bullock is
not, in the estimation of the average
breeder, and feeder, ripe, and is there
fore not fully fit for slaughter. The
fact is that the ripe Z" beast is utterly
unfit for economical use as food for hu-
nianity. Without the help of the maker
of oleomargarine such beef can not be
profitably used, for large part of it is
not fit for food even for the dogs.
The time must come when men will
see the folly of breeding their cattle as
they would breed swine, for the produc-
ton of the greatest possible quantity of
fat. The fat Of beeves is largely waste
matter; asfood for human beings it has
little or no value. Will not the wise
breeder seek to raise those cattle for
beef in which he can get the greatest
possible quantity of nutritious flesh,
tender and juicy, having enough fat to
relieve it from dryness, but not enough
to offend the fastidious appetite, nor
TO disturb the digestion of the dyspeptic.
rather than continue in the old way
simply because it is the old way.
Feeders and dealers have said, when
these views have been broached to them,
We'll you have your theories, but well
take the fat CATTLE" But the butchers
say that if they could get beeves which
were full heshed without being fat, they
would only be too glad to do so. Unfor-
tunately for their pockets they find that
most of the breeds of cattle and sheep
do net produce tender, juicy and palata-
bic meat before they lay on large
quantity Of taliow. The truth seems
to be that the skill of the breeders has
been misdirected, 50 that there are in
the country few breeds capable Of pro-
ducing the meat-eater's ideal beef and
mutton-that having maximum guam
tity OF nutritious, tender and palatable
flesh, with minimum of waste mater
ial.-Ksnsas City Indicator, January 8,
] 1885.