Telegram-herald., 1890-12-01
CALVES FOR Fifty CENTS APIECE.
They Make Bob Veal ard the Industry
Thriyos i'm the CatsxilIs.

They Make Bob Veal. and the Industry
rhrivcs i'm the CatssilIs.
They are selling calves for a half dollar
apiece up In the Cstskills. One night a
number OF farmers met around the stove
in the Office OF Greene county hotel 10
talk the matter over. They seemed 10
think that a half dollar was 4 fair price
for the calves, inasnnuch as the meat these
very young boy1nes afford Is a questionable
article Of diet. It is ordinarily called bob
veal"
One farmer said that a neighbor Of bis
was making great deal Of money buying
these calves from the farmers He sends
a wagon over wide extent OF country,
buying all the new born calves, which the
farmers are anxious to get rie OF, because
they say it pays them better TO dispose of
the calves and 10 sell the milk which the
caS Is would require TO make them good
veal; so the dealer buys the calves at 50
cents apiece when he takes them from the
farmers barn yard, and sometimes he
pays IS cents or 81 when they are delivered
at his own premises. He kills and skins
the little animals, for their hides are worth
a trifle, and sends the dressed carcasses by
the hundreds TO New York, where, in
spite of the prohibition against bob veal,
they are sold in great numbers.
1t happened that evening that a New
York commission man sat with the farm
ers in the hotel Office. His business in the
Catsxills seemed TO be to stimulate the bob
veal industry, and he tried TO persuade one
old fellow to go into the business Of col
lecting the calves, telling him that there
was really good deal Of money in it. Ac-
cording TO his story very little money is
made from one of these calves unless it
weighs, dressed, about sixty pounds. A
calf weighing from forty TO fifty pounds
brings only two or two and one-hah cents
in the market, while a large calf is often
sold for several times that amount as good
veal, and the purchaser therefore reaps a
large profit.
The farmers were curious to know what
was done with this sort of meat. which the
New York health board prohibits. well"
said the commission man, IF you come
down to New York you are likely to eat
bob veal without knowing it. You step
into saloon and find on the sideboard
some chicken salad that looks appetizing.
The chicken in this salad nine times in
ten is bob veal from Orange, Greene or
Herlximer county, or some other cattle
producing region. A good deal Of canned
chicken does not contain an ounce Of
chicken, bob veal being made to do noble
service as a substitute.
''The great public does not seem to know
the difference. Bob veal, hovcvtr, -four
ishes chiefly on free lunch counters and on
excursion steamboats,, though butchers
both IN New York and Brooklyn are known
TO palm it of as good. honest veal There
is a demand for every bit that comes to
New York, and though once in a while a
load OF IT is confscsted BY the health au-
thorities, the most Of it enters into the
consumption OF the two big cities.
Some Of the farmers present did not seem
20 regard it as exactly legitimate busi-
ness, but every one Of them said that IL
they had any calves to get rid Of the dealer
in bob veal was welcome 60 them at from
50 cents to 81 a head--New York Sun.