Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1899-04-13


AZ Australasia.
II Il nineteen years since the hrst
shipIoad OF frozen mutton was de-
spatched from Melbourne. The trade
In refrigerated meat was ut first very
slow in developing. In 1883 only $11,-
600 worth Of sheep carcasses were sent
across the sea from Argentina. 1t was
not until about ten years ago that the
business began to take on very large
proportions. To-day New Zealand has
Its freezing works at Auckland, Wei
Iington and elsewhere, and every year
over $5,OO0,OOO worth of fish, beef,
mutton and lamb are frozen solid,
sewed mp In canvas, stored In the cold
chambers OF ships built for the trade
and sent to markets I'm Polynesia and
Europe. In 1890 New South Wales
expectation Of sheep carcasses was
only 100000, but 1t has steadily In
creased, and In 1896 1t reached the
large figure of 100000 carcasses, av-
eraging fifty-six pounds. 1t costs three
cents pound to kill, freeze. ship and
sell the mutton In London: and among
the other places OF large shipment are
Manchester South Africa and Malta.
Queensland is the only Australian col
only that exports beef In any quantity.
New Zealand now has the most extern
sive meat-freezing works In Austral-
asia. They are at Auckland, yelling
ton and elsewhere, and in 1896 they
froze 2,362,535 sleeps carcasses. I'm
til 1877 the only country sending fresh
meat to the United Kingdom was Hol-
land, but to-day by far the larger part
Of the fresh meat imports come from
Australia, New Zealand and the River
La Plata.
Argentina at last leads New South
Wales and New Zealand in the exports
of frozen mutton and lamb. She has
need for large export trade, for her
newspapers say she is now producing
annually an immense quantity of meat
that her people cannot possibly con-
sumo. This enormous surplus has nat
urally brought about the establishment
of large meat refrigerating plants and
one of the four in Buenos Ayres. that
owned by the Sansiena Company, has
facilities for killing, dressing, freezing
is the largest plant Of the sort in the
world. Before the era Of refrigeration
1t was impossible to transport meat
long distances, and much less to carry
it across the tropics to Europe. In
those days we used to hear chiefly OF
the beef extracts prepared from Ar
gentine and Uruguay cattle. But now
Argentina alone is exporting about D
100000 frozen carcasses Of sheep
year. The processes employed aye
practically the same as In New Zea-
land and, as in our own Strengthening
centres, nothing is allowed to go to
waste.
Cold storage is one Of the great mod
ern triumphs in transportation. South
Africa Is able to profit by 1t to get
summer-made butter all the year
round. 1t is winter in Denmark when
summer reigns in Australia. and so
when 1t is the grass season in Aus
tralia good deal of South Africa's
butter comes from that quarter of the
earth, and when the grass is sere and
yellow in the dairy districts Of Aus
tralia the butter of Denmark begins to
arrive. England buys from Denmark
nearly $30,O00,O00 worth Of butter q
year, and. though the distance is short
more and more of it is being sent in
cold storage. Cold storage does not
create wealth, but it keeps wealth
from becoming loss. 1t lengthens
the marketing period, for unless but
ter, Strawberries and other articles are
preserved in some way or other they
deterioriate or become valueless In a
very short time. 1t also enables the
producer, within certain limits, to
choose his own time for selling, for he
is not compelled to sell, whether he
will or no, at an unfavorable time.