Crawford avalanche., 1892-04-28

refrigerator cars are feed three times. a
corps of experts being stationed at the
supply y-houses along the various lines OF
road for this purpose. A train load OF
dressed beef starting from the Chicago
yards on Monday will arrive In New York
the following Friday, and the Brooklyn
or New Jersey householder may have
for his piece de resistance att six o clock
dinner Friday night a tender, juicy roast
of beef that six days previous was part
of lively steer cavorting around In the
pens adjacent 10 the Chicago slaughter
houses.
The dressed beef business can only
subsist, In a Wholesale way at least, at
the great central markets OF the coun-
try The systom 10 to a great extent an
enlarged butchers business, as 1t Is
supported by host of retailers, who,
instead or being butchers on the old
style, have become merely meat cutters.
In San Francisco there are no butchers,
tho city drawing its retail supplies of
animal food from the hosts OF meat
cutters who buy their COOL from day to
day from the Wholesale slaughterer. So
IL is with the dressed beef interests in
Chicago. SO much meat Is forwarded
daily north, south, east and west, to be
distributed at the different points where
the beef, veal, pork or mutton is In de-
mand. The work is thoroughly SYSTEM
atized, for those engaged In it must be
prepared to meet the demands OF their
customers. The "big three" have
Wholesale supply houses in every city OF
any size in the country, and 1t is said
that within the past six months one OF
the trio has established upward OF one
hundred OF these depots in the principal
cities of the United Kingdom, where
the dressed beef interests are rapidly
growing.
This industry has naturally created a
revolution among the retail butchers
trade. All the butcher has TO do now Is
to repair to the slaughter-house, select
his beef from the refrigerators, or con-
tract for daily or weekly supply to be
sent him. At outside points he calls at
the refrigerator where the meats are un-
loaded from the cars, and there makes
his purchases. Formerly the retail
butcher who did his own killing had to
have much larger capital invested m
his business than is now required, nor
could he get his supplies so reasonably
as he is now enabled to purchase them.
In the first place, he had to employ a
trained butcher to kill and dress his
stock, which assistant was idle good
share OF the time. II he killed at the
yards the hides had 10 be shipped back
TO Chicago, the offal could not be util-
ized, and il his trade called only for fine
meats he had to dispose OF the rough
stuff and least desirable parts of the
animal as best he could. Under the
pre- sent system he can do a larger tusi-
ness on much smaller capital; he need
bnA,- eanly that t-puhia,h.- h.-loan -he-Gnld to adj
vantage, and he can make arrangements
to have his particular grade Of meats
left hanging in the big chilling rooms 10
suit his own convenience.
Every one who has visited the great
packing houses at the Chicago Stock
Yards has heard of the old joke told
anent the hog that the My part of him
wasted is his ~squeal." The steer is
not provided by nature with a squeal,
and he loses little breath by believing,
so that the waste with him should be
somewhat less than with the hog. The
perusal of the following table will show
in what proportions 1,2OO pound steer
will dress: