The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-07
At DeptfOrd Market


 The London butchers never cease to sound the praise of English" beef and mutton but they sell little that is really English. There is a world of difference between "home-killed" and ''home-fed" cattle, but the Londoner does not realize 1t costs more to bring a bullock to Tsling- ton than an American one from New York; and if he ever goes to the Gale donian market to see cattle that is Eng fish by birth. he practically never goes to Deptford to see the cattle that is English only by death. He Judges the butchers meat by the price the butcher charges for it, not knowing that London eats more foreign meat than any other | city in the world. All the cattle that are shipped to London alive pass ashore at Deptford into the market which stands on | the site of the backyard where Peter the Great learned shipbuildng. Every animal | IS inspected by government official and those that are in any way diseased are l killed and cremated straightway. For 10 days bullock may live in Deptford mar ket, then the law demands that is shall
 be killed. and. in any case. no animal is allowed to leave the lairs alive
 The Great Meat Market
 Cattle come by train from all parts of the kingdom to the Metropolitan cattle market at Islington, travelling through the night and on Mondays and Thursdays the market opens at dawn and continues till o'clock in the afternoon. The cattle that are sold are driven to the slaughter houses and killed, and the meat is on sale at Smithfield in the early hours next morning. No foreign animal intended for human consumption can meet an English sheep or bullock alive, but after death they find temporary resting place to- gether in the market of Smithfeid, where eight acres of ground are devoted to the sale of I.OndOn's ofc the morning this market is ablaze with light, and the streets in the vicinity are blocked with railway vans; at clock the salesmen are in their places, and soon afterwards the buyers from the big shops arrive, and the sawdust-strewn avenues of red and yellow carcasses are.t .thronged Smithfields daily supply of beef and nut ton is about 1900 tons. but only a fifth of this meat is British. and much of the mutton comes from New Zealand via the Victoria docks
 The Green GrOcer's Eden
 The county of Kent is noted for its fruit and vegetables, but London would be unable to satisfy it's craving for greenstuff without the aid of other countries. The miscellaneous vege- tables annually brought into this coun- try from abroad are worth close upon million pounds, and London devours lions share of them. There are sev- eral markets in the metropolis for such wares-Spitalfields. the great northern potato market, and the Far ringdon fruit and vegetable market but the bulk of the apples, oranges, lemons, onions, potatoes and other roots that are brought from France, Italy. Spain, and Algiers find their way from the docks-to Covent Garden, in common with the home grown fruit and vegetables. which reach London from allapoints of the compass in hove, and baskets piled high on numbering vans. Most or our market gardeners sell their own wares at ''the garden ''
 while the foreign stuff is sold by auc- tion. For 300 years this place has been the premier market of London for veg
 etables, fruits and flowers, and there are firms who have traded beneath its
 glass roof for generations. The sell ing begins at daybreak. and clerk l who work ins the Strand would be staggered at the unfamiliar aspect of that thoroughfare if they were to visit it then It is as If country town had
 suddenly been dumped down there with
 its market day in full swing. FArmers' carts fill the center of the roadway