The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-07-29
Raleigh, N. c., July 80, 1902.


faithful services in the slaughter pen.
"The local butchers send the ami
mails to the slaughterhouse every night
and early in the morning the animals
are killed by being stabbed in the back
of the neck. After inspection the car
casses are Immediately cut up, and by
5 a. M, the various parts are hanging
in the local butcher shops ready for
sale. By MONDAY the butchers are sold
out, their shops are closed, and in less
than twenty-four hours from the time
the animal is slaughtered, the entire
carcass is consumed. None Of the To-
cal butchers use ice, as it is very ex-
pensive, costing from 5 to 6 cents a
pound.
"The equipment of a Lourenco Mar
quez butcher shop" states Consul Hol-
lis, "would amaze an American butch
er. Everything is crude and antiquat-
ed. There are no refrigerators, and
marble slabs and plate-glass windows
are comparatively unknown. Instead
of clean paper, old newspapers are
used for wrapping purposes"
INSECT PESTS AND TRUCK CROPS
Prof. F. II. Chittenden, an Assis-
tant Entomologist of the Department
of Agriculture, in an interview the
other day spoke of the outlook for
truck crops this season in connection
with destruction by insects.
Hardly had the news reached the
Department of Agriculture that the
western half of the United States, be-
ginning with California and thence
gradually to the eastward as far as
Kansas, the locust or rather grasshop-
per tribe has been making life miser-
able for the farmer, than word was
also received that various species of
caterpillars we're causing destruction
! along the Atlantic seaboard. Press
dispatches recently state that trains
have ceased running in certain por-
tions of the West owing to the slip
perry rails caused by the crushing of
countless caterpillars.
Then too, the seventeen year cicada
has been with the country, but not
withstanding its vast numbers, the
harm Occasioned by the visit has been
slight other than a generous pruning
to young trees.
However, with the known presence
of these insects, Mr.. Chittenden makes
the statement that this country will
not be troubled as much with insects
as in many previous years, owing, he
says, to the severe. winter during
which time insect eggs were either
frozen or the young pests themselves
frosted and killed by the cold.
In the West violent measures are
being taken to prevent the triumphant
progress of the grasshoppers. The
dry fields are saturated with coal oil
and the torch applied. Another plan
is to make a good sized stack of straw
in the field in which the grasshoppers
will hide or make their homes. After
sufficient number have entered this
trap, the stack is burned.
As to the caterpillars the old rem
i edy of tying large wads of raw cotton
about the tree trunks has been found
to be probably the best as the cater
pillars cannot get a good foothold on
the cotton and so they are thus with
out means of climbing the tree.
GROWTH OF MEAT PACKING INDUSTRY
The Census Office has issued a re-
port on the slaughtering and meat
packing industry of the United States
for the census year 1900. In 1890, the
date of the last Census, the value of
the products was 81, ,981 ,642, against
$785, 5,562, ,433 in 1900. For 1900 the re-
ports show a capital of $3.50, ,198, ,264
invested in land, buildings, machinery,
ETC., while in 1890 for the same pur-
pose only $3,482, 500 was invested. AS
shown by other large industries, there
has been a tendency toward concen-
tration, there being LIS establish
ments in 1890 employing 1926 people
and only 921 in 1900, wherein 68,534
persons found work.
GUY E. MITCHELL.
About two months ago Gen. W. P