Morning journal and courier., 1891-12-01
wANTED-A NEW MEAT,
Swans and Peacocks Are Worth Raising-But Some Wild Animals may He Better.

search of the New York dealers and find their way across the Atlantic shght only on the tables of city companies and mil lionaires, like the calsdrus of old, that sp- pesred only at the deaths of kings Yet there are probably twenty people in this country who have eaten canvas backed duck for one who has evsr tasted swan, or rather cygnet, the finest water fowl for the table, alike in size and flavor, a bird easy to rear, most prolific, rivalling even the breast of teal, without the fatal drawback of that excellent little bird, that no one has ever been able to get enough of it. Even now. though so neglected by the world, swans may be had from the Nor wich swan pit for two pounds each. They weigh some sixteen pounds, and with them is forwarded an ancient recipe for cooking them, "done into rhyme by a person of quality"
 Another 'tfowl" which was once reserved for the tables of kings, and is now hardly thought good enough for aldermen, is the peacock. What roast swan is to roast goose, such is roast peacock to roast tur- key. Many owners of county houses who keep peacocks and let them run wild and nest in their woods and shrubberies, take little trouble either to fstten or cook the pea chicks. If they did they would per uhps takc nOEc phlus lO THAL I1esa DlrOs for the table. The meat is very white and of exceedingly fine and close grain, and has the true game favor with none of the stringiness of the common turkey
 But flesh, and not fowl, is what is main ly desired to widen the possibilities of the dinner table. Fatted swans or peacocks or American turkeys. might be increased and multiplied without affording more than an occasional relief to the monotony of the menu and the brain-searching of housekeepers. What is wanted is some new and large animal, whose flesh has 6 character of its own which would readily distinguish it from beef or mutton, and an excellence which shall make it inde- pendent of any special treatment in cook ing-something which shall combine the game flavor with the substantial solidity of leg of mutton An increase in the quantity of venisOn reared in this country naturally suggests itself. It is objected that deer can never pay to fat for food, because tine animal growth of their horns reduces them SD much in condition ss for a time to make the venison worthless. But this applies only to the bucks; stsgs might be kept like bullOcks, and doe veni- son might still be remunerative.
 But swan, peacock and venison are, af- ter all, only revivals of the old bill of fare.
 
 the worlds resources of animal food, and inquire, after due survey, if there does not still exist some neglected Quadruped which will furnish what we seek. Rough | ly speaking, our main supply of animal food is drawn either from the rodents, the ruminsnts or the pschyderms-represent- ed by the rabbit, the or or sheep, and the pig. To vary the supply at our disposal,
 we shall probably not be able to go beyond | these limits; for the general experience of civilized man has already pronounced | judgment on the question, and science | supports the verdict It is no good to eat | a wolf, for the wolf has already got the benefit of eating the lamb, and left no | surplus for us. Of the three great tribes, | the rodents may De dismissed from our search; for these that are not already used ' as food are either too small to be useful, | as the lemming or the guinea pig, or too repulsive in appearance, like the capybars, | or in habits, like the rat. Of the pachy- | derms we find only one which is domesti- | cated for food, the dear familiar Berkshire | or Yorkshire piggie. The larger pachy- | derms are too big; the smaller, like the peccsry, too savage; the wart hog and oth- | er African varieties too repulsive. Clear | ly, then, we must have recourse to the list | of ruminants if We are to find one to add | to the bill of fare.
 At first the choice seems wide enough. | It embraces all the deer tribe, the wild | sheep and antelopes, goats and ibexes, | which are numerous; but all have a rank
 and disagreeable flavor, which must pre- vent their coming into the list of first
 class food. The possibility of extending
 the supply of venison we have already considered. The wild sheep would prob.
 ably differ too little in flavor from mutton | .,,l-, ;A A.
 them, though those of the Himslaya will
 breed freely in confinement. The ante | lopes, therefore, alone remain, and it il | among their number that the animal want
 ed must be found, if it is to be found al
 all
 If the accounts of African hunters are
 to be relied on, the venison obtained iron
 the larger kinds of antelope found in soutl
 and central Africa is really excellent, tha
 of the koodoo, the oryx and the eland be
 ing the best. Perhaps the highest and
 most modern authority available for quo
 tstion on the subject is Lord Randolph
 Churchill. His lordship's verdict on tn
 eland, the flesh of which is said to surpas
 that of all other sntelopes as much a
 Welsh mutton does Lincolnshire "teg,
 will be of material interest to the presen
 inquiry. Less educated pslstes have pro |
 in addition the valuable property of bein
 tender immediately after the animal i killed, which makes it much appreciate
 in central Af rica, where the meat is usual | ly as tough as shoe leather and nearly 6 dry" In addition to the quality of th
 meat, the eland has the additional requi
 site of large size. A full grown eland as large as & two-year sbarthorn, an { has far more the appearance of & higf , bred bullock than an antelope. Its horn are short and straight, pointing backward
 and it has dewlap like an OK It ca l live on the hardest fare, and soon grow . very fat on good pasture. Beet of all, r becomes quite tame and is easily scclims tized. The writer remembers to have see
 8 splendid group of these animals in th Jardin d'Acclimatation in the Bois de Bor ! logne, an old bull nearly sixteen hand . high, a COW and two young, apparently . yssrlins and a two-year-old. They wei T in good condition, though living in pal dock with only an open shed to shelt,
 them from the weather. The late Lol !, Derby kept them at knowsley Park fS '' many years. It seems to be a waste of il :, resources of nature to allow these fir a creatures to be exterminsted, as they 500 8 will be, in our new African empire. Wh
 should we not save the eland, the hsrmle ,- antelope, the 100000 ana other large All
 can antelopes from exterminstion-ar # even try to rear some in Englandi IT v experiment may be recommended to son 's of the noble owners of parks and chas "A who have already done 80 much to pr
 serve our own deer and wild cattle fro [, extermination. America has allowed Il l. bison to perish. Shall We not take war
 ing, and preserve for our own use u 70 splendid African sntelopes which, with the memory of man, were a thoussI
 times more numerous than they are t IT dayl