Morning journal and courier., 1889-03-21
A CHAT WITH THE MEAT-MAN. Why we Have so Much Poor and Tough Beef and Why 1t Costs so MUch.


 From the Springfield Republican,
 A marketman of long experience in the beef trade in this vicinity gives his views in regard to the question why we have so much l poor and tough beef and why it costs so much. He says that from July to January more poor beef is found in the eastern mar kets than at any other season of the year. The reason is that by July nearly all the cat l tie that have been corn-ted through the win- ter are used up, and the great southwest be- gins to market her grass-fed beef. They can get grass there from one to two months ear Her than the herdsmen of the northern States. As is well known, the cattle of the 1 southwest are largely descendants ot the old Spanish stock, whose muscles are better adapted for running than to be bitten by the teeth of epicures. It will be a great bless ing to beef-eateIs when the race of Spanish cattle or "Texas rangers" as some call them, ] are extinct. They are tough, wiry breed, and will travel as many miles in a day as a ! horse, and by that means they find the first spires of grass, which improves the slickness of the hides on their saw-horse frames much more than it does the quality of their flesh. When their owners ship them from their ranches in July they come into Kansas City ! or Chicago with their heads and heels up, ready for another thousand-mile journey, or, as is oftener the case, they are driven to the slaughter-house, killed, washed and chilled, and made ready to be shipped in refrigerator cars to eastern markets. Here the people who buy, cook, carve and try to masticate them wonder why the beef is so tough. A pugilist is put through course of exercise and diet to harden and develop his muscles, and the life these cattle lead has very much the same effect Imagine a four-year-old steer, born in the wilds of Texas, obliged through the winter to hunt up dead grass and weeds for a living, then raced with horses, Isssooed by cowboys nearly as wild 1, xI,,,.o lws and then shipped from one to two thousand miles, with barely enough hay and water to sustain life, and this will explain why beef is so often poor and tough. There is still another class of cattle. These are half breeds or Colorado cattle," which are some improvement on the Texans so far as size goes, but their sinews are proportionately developed and toughened by the hard life and wide ranges of the prairie pastures. Both kinds of cattle, sandwiched with old COWS and bulls, constitute most of the beef eaten in the eastern markets from July to January. As the season advances the beef of course becomes fatter because fed more corn, but still retains much of it's original toughness and dryness.
 The question may be asked, Why don't the eastern marketmen buy some of the finer and better breeds of cattle found in the mid- de and northern States9 Ask the Big Four. They will tell you that our English neigh
  are willing to pay for them, and as the Big Four have control of ths beef market, it is for their interest to ship the best acroes the water, and flood this eastern market with beef that cannot stand long shipment. It is next to impossible to keep the watery, grass fed beef low enough to reach England. The motto appears to be: "Sell the best where there is no demand for the poorest, and keep the poorest at home" After sending Eng land the best, some of the best that remains is fairly good. In regard to the cost of beef to the consumer, the worst thing the eastern marketman has to contend with is unlimited credit. In most cases the Big Four, who ship to their agents in the East, get their pay within ten days, or less If the agents are men of means, but the agents receive the beef in such quantities, and competition is so sharp, that the agents obliged to take every means in their power to sell. The re- suit is that more cart routes are established and small markets opened in the winter than the summer. These usually pay promptly at first, but by and by give and ask for credit, at the same time selling lower than the es- tablished merchants that carry on the busi- ness from year to year. When spring opens some of these winter marketmen drop cut for more profitable business. In the end the consumer must pay for all this, for every dealer who holds on year after year must charge enough on the one hand for his goods to pay for all possible looses the other. It does not cost much more besides the help to run a market for one thousand customers than for one hundred, and therefore the more little winter carts and markets estab- Gshed, the more the meat will cost, for the consumer must eventually pay for all losses.