The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-03-31
fresh from the warrens of the English no.

fresh from the warrens Of the English no.
bility.
In q Big Freezing Factory.
But let US go to one Of the factories and
! see just how they prepare this New Zealand
mutton for the tables of London New
Zealand has twenty-one meat-freezing es-
Establishments. and the largest and Oldest
of all is here at Christchurch. 1t is known
as the Belfast freezing works. having a
capital Of s5OO,OOO upon which it Jays dtvi-
dends of 8 per cent. 1t is a cooperative in
stitution, the sheep owners being the prin-
| cipal stockholders. 1t gives them a market
for their sheep, working entirely on COM
| mission. The sheep are driven or shipped
to the factory. They are there killed.,
frozen, put upon ships and delivered to the
butchers of London at q fixed charge Of q
penny a pound. and all profits above this
go back to the farmers. Tho factory kills
about 5000 sheep every day. shipping on the
| average more than a half million carcasses
a year.
We take a carriage and ride out to the
works. They are within a few miles of
Christchurch. The buildings consist Of
great sheds surrounded by paddocks filled
with sheep ready for killing. and drying
yards. which at first sight seem covered
with snow, but which as we get closer
we see are spotted with great piles Of
newly washed wool. We are first taken to
the sheep yards and watch the men drive
the animals up q p-assageway to the kill
ing department on the second floor. This
driving is done by means Of decoys. There
are several old sheep which are used day
after: day and year after year as the ad-
vance guard to lead their brothers to
slaughter. They start the procession. and
the thousands behind. sheeplike, follow
them. Often 10000 sheep pass up that road
way in one day.
In the KiIlinE-Rooms.
We follow the sheep into the building.
The killing-room is several hundred feet
long. 1t is a great hall walled with pens.
each holding twenty sheep. The pens face
a central aisle in which stand the butchers.
The sheep are killed at the rate of ten
every minute. The butchers are very eX-
pert. They drag out the animals and with
their knives kill them SO quickly that they
do not even kick. One man has been
known to kill go sheep in a day, but the
usual average per hour Is nine sheep for
each man.
After killing a sheep the butcher hangs
It upon a hook behind him, strips of the
cuts off the head. dresses 1t and
washes it down with hot water. This Is
done so quickly that 1t takes only seven
minutes from the time the live sheep Is
picked up until it Is ready for freezing.
When a sheep Is finished the butcher
gives it a shove and the pulley to which it
is hooked, running by gravity on a little
steel track. carries it off to the cooling !
room. From now on 1t Is not handled until
1t is ready for shipment. The work is done
so rapidly that there Is a long stream OF
steadily flowing out of the
shop into the c~ooling-room and
later on from there down to the freezing
In the Freezing Chambers.
After having been cooled forty-eight hours,
that the animal heat may go out of them,
the carcasses, being weighed as they go.
take another trip on their pulleys into tho
freezing chambers. There are a dozen of
these. each having a storage capacity of
about 10000 sheep. Each m covers
one-ffth of an acre. and If you will imaginef
a good-sized city lot inclosed in walls of
frozen brine coated with snow and filed
carcasses of mutton hanging down
the ceiling SO near one another that
they almost touch you may have some idea
Of a freezing chamber. :