Meat market

“ Many cultivators of sheep, too, are so situated as to prefer fine wool, which is incompatible with the largest quantity and best quality of meat. Others differently situated in regard to a meat market would do well to follow the English practice and aim at the most profitable production of mutton. A great many farmers, not only of those in the vicinity of large towns, but of those at some distance, might, beyond doubt, cultivate dairy qualities in cows, to great advantage, and this too, even, if necessary, at the sacrifice, to considerable extent, of beef making qualities. ”

“ Two or three pretty girls were behind each of these stalls, and were serving with great dilligence and taste, the knots of butchers' [Pg 439] helpers, cartmen, butchers' boys, and market officials who stood in their vicinity.
There are at least half a dozen meat inspectors in each market, and these men are paid one hundred pounds a year to examine and decide as to the wholesomeness of each and every pound or carcass of meat brought into the markets. ”

“ Careful consideration of market conditions is also useful, not only to make sure that the meat is handled and marketed in a sanitary way, but also to take advantage of any favorable change in price which may be due, for instance, to a large local supply of some particular kind or cut of meat. In towns where there is opportunity for choice, it may sometimes be found more satisfactory not to give all the family trade to one butcher; by going to various markets before buying the housekeeper is in a better position to hear of variations in prices and so be in a position to get the best values. ”

“ The high price of meat of which so much complaint has been made in recent years is not likely to recede. The high price is not due to manipulations of the market, but to natural causes, the chief of which is the limitation of pasturage and is the consequence of a decrease in the number of livestock. As the country becomes more and more densely settled, the difficulty of supplying the demand for meat will increase, and in time the necessity for utilizing every foot of ground in the most efficient manner, will necessarily bring about a change in the dietetic habits of the people. ”

“ That we can find a market for an increased production of pork and bacon is certain. Last year, we paid the foreigner—and chiefly the Yankee—some three millions sterling for dead pig-meat, sent to us in the shape of hams, bacon, and pork. There is no reason why we should not this season increase our breeding-herds of swine and make some attempt to wrest from the foreigner this market. It lies at our doors; and the pig himself is perhaps the most profitable of all the meat-making machinery of the farm. The fecundity of the pig is such that the breeding-stock may be increased almost at will. ”

“ It appears to me to be a most important matter that soup meat, and meat for potting and stewing, should be sent to this country in the way I propose. The supply would be large, the prices low, and the profits highly satisfactory, and it would greatly relieve the meat market, because a very large quantity of fresh meat which is now used for soup could be employed in other ways. ”

“ Cow-beef is habitually sold in the markets and the poor gladly buy it at a low price. Even in the best quarters of the town, superior meat hangs side by side with the second quality. Not enough comes to town of the best short-horned beef, or of Southdown mutton, to supply one-tenth of the customers, and in all market-lists the prices at per stone vary according to the breed and the quality. It answers the grazier's purpose to take a lower price per stone for an animal that arrives quickly at maturity, and attains to the greatest weight on a given amount of food. ”

“ The mere fact that none of the pigs have been operated upon, and their food having consisted of roots and the seed of oaks, chestnuts, beech and other trees, is sufficient to give a very good idea of the quality—or want of it—of the meat. In this country such stuff would fail to find a market, unless it were for the conversion into the lowest priced sausages in some of our large towns, where the poverty is so great that anything in the form of meat is looked upon as a treat, to be enjoyed only occasionally. ”

“ It seems even more strange that the right to sell diseased meats should be regarded as sacred. But this is so recent that probably all here remember the severe struggle to establish the principle that meat should be inspected and found wholesome before being placed upon the market. ”

“ To buy and sell this huge and unusual quantity of meat, a careful organization has been necessary. At first the Allied nations bought meat in this country as best they could in competition with the domestic market and each other, often feverishly to meet emergencies. Last December a commission was formed to buy for all the Allies. The prices to be paid are settled by experts, after careful study, so that packers, storage warehouses, [pg 33] and producers shall all have adequate, but not excessive return for their labor. ”

“ From a profit standpoint the money to be made is unquestionably in the sale of breeding stock, but there is a good profit in raising meat for market. In my own neighborhood rabbit meat sells for as much as 65 cents per pound dressed and it never falls below 30 cents a pound live weight. There is, of course, the necessity of building up a local demand for your meat but it is not slow in coming so long as other forms of meat continue at their high prices. ”

“ There is also the loss caused by the warble to the butcher—and through the butcher to the Army Service Corps. The presence of the fly-larva, which is quite a large creature, induces chronic inflammation in the tissues, and a state of things known to the trade as ‘licked beef,’ and unless the meat-salesman cuts away the affected parts the meat is unsaleable in the market, or greatly depreciated in value. ”

“ Another thing they must attend to is, that in cutting up the meat it must be neatly dressed. On this score we have heard serious complaints. The quarters of beef are too often not properly trimmed for market, at least not sufficiently so to please English wholesale dealers.
Other nations are striving to ascertain whether they can obtain a share in this new meat-trade. A French Company has built a ship called La Frigorifique, to ply between Buenos Ayres and Brest; it contains cool chambers which will keep meat at any desired temperature. ”

“ As soon as the cold weather fairly sets in, the fatted cattle and pigs and poultry are doomed to die by the hands of the butcher. The carcasses are instantly frozen and sent to market. Here it is packed up in enormous heaps, and families who are able to buy at wholesale prices lay in their winter supplies, and those who live from hand to mouth can buy at any time fresh meat that was killed in the fall. ”

“ Hundreds of thousands of live cattle, many hundred thousand tons of meat, chilled, frozen, salted, or tinned, pour into the country every year from across the sea. Canada alone last year sent 123,000 head of cattle; New Zealand nearly 1,500,000 frozen carcasses of sheep. It has been estimated that the quantity of meat food in the United Kingdom at any time is only sufficient to supply the market for three months ”

“ If beef, instead of being ninepence, should rise to a shilling, or fourteenpence a pound, some people would refuse to buy it altogether, and others would buy less than before. The supply of things varies similarly; if the price of meat rises high, farmers who own cattle bring them to market, in order to get a good profit by selling them; if the price falls low, they keep their cattle to sell at another time. ”

“ Fully one-fifth of them are sold to the butchers, the major portion for human consumption, and the remainder to feed, and, in many cases, to disease pigs. Every now and then we hear through the newspapers that some unprincipled butcher is fined for exposing diseased or tainted meat for sale in Newgate Market ”

“ Along the sides of the Plaza are stalls kept by women, who sell sausages and fish. The central part of the market is appropriated to the sale of vegetables, of [Pg 108] which there is always an excellent supply. Facing the Palace of the Inquisition are the butchers' shops. The meat is good, though not very plentifully displayed. The most abundant kinds of meat are mutton and beef. The slaughtering of young animals being strictly prohibited by law, veal, lamb, and sucking pigs are never seen in the market. ”

“ Prior, where is your market?"
[90]
"We haven't got to that yet, ma'am," replied the landlady, laughing and shaking her head.
"No market? why how do you manage without?"
"There's butcher shops where we can buy fresh meat once or twice a week—beef, veal, mutton, lamb, just whatever they happen to kill—and we put up our own salt pork, hams, dried beef, and so forth, and keep codfish and mackerel on hand.
"Most folks have their own chickens, and the country people bring 'em in too; and butter and eggs and vegetables; though a good many town folks have garden sass of their own raisin' ”

“ The importation of fresh meat from abroad is a branch of trade that is rapidly increasing. The importation of the tinned preserved meats is falling off, but the importation of fresh beef, mutton, pork and other meats, exclusive of bacon and ham, increased from 1,184,289 cwts. ”

“ While nothing positive can be predicted, better conditions is a practical certainty. The domestic consumption of beef is increasing to a gratifying degree; the arranging of international credits and the opening of foreign markets is a matter of comparatively short time. European need for pork products will be urgent and excessive for a considerable time, and this will not only take care of our surplus hogs, but will react favorably upon the market for cattle and sheep. ”

“ FRESH BEEF
Much of the frontier, upon which vast numbers of cattle were formerly raised, is now cut up into small farms and town lots. Hereafter, we must raise the greater portion of our meat animals upon expensive land and feed. The cost of production has increased many fold and consequently meat is higher in price. Packers, through utilizing by-products, keep the cost of wholesome meat within the reach of the consumer. ”

“ Buttocks of beef, fillets of veal, and legs of mutton and lamb, as they have most solid meat and least bone, in proportion, are best for large families.
The most economical way for marketing, is to buy what roasting and boiling pieces you want in one lot. Butchers will sell quantities, thus assorted, much cheaper than they will sell single joints; and prime roasting joints, when bought alone, are always charged extravagantly. ”

“ For a time the United States furnished the largest part of the fresh meat consumed in England. It is true that for many years we have supplied foreign markets with cured and canned meats, but the fresh meat trade in England is a business developed within a comparatively few years and it grew to magnitude. However, owing to our growth, increasing home [8] demands, and the changed economic conditions, this business dwindled in the last decade so that on beef it was practically gone, except that during the European war owing to prevailing conditions, it was revived for a time at least. ”

“ Should, however, any cheap mode of conveying live stock, or even their flesh, from those and similarly circumstanced countries be devised, it might render the production of meat in Britain a far less profitable occupation than it is now. ”

“ First, there must finally be a realignment of prices on all livestock and meats, to levels below the prevailing high war prices. A fair balance must be struck between the interests of the consumer and those of the producer. Prices for meat must be sufficiently attractive to consumers to insure an adequate volume of sales; on the other hand prices for livestock must be sufficiently high to encourage production. Only on this basis can the industry thrive.
Second, the utmost care must be taken in breeding and buying of feeding stock and the most exacting economy practiced in feeding methods. ”

“ It may give us no more grain to sell than at present, but it will enable us to produce much more mutton, wool, beef, cheese, butter, and pork, than at present.
“But, then, will there be a demand for the meat, wool, etc.?” The present indications are highly favorable. But we must aim to raise good meat. The low-priced beef and mutton sold in our markets are as unprofitable to the consumer as they are to the producer. We must feed higher, and to do this to advantage we must have improved stock. There is no profit in farming without good tillage, larger crops, improved stock, and higher feeding. ”

“ They never buy anything but bacon; never butchers' meat. Philanthropic ladies, to my knowledge, have demonstrated over and over again even to their limited capacities that certain parts of butchers' meat can be bought just as cheap, and will make more savoury and [Pg 214] nutritive food; and even now, with the present high price of meat, a certain proportion would be advantageous. In vain; the labourers obstinately adhere to the pig, and the pig only. When, however, an opportunity does occur the amount of food they will eat is something astonishing. ”

“ Of course, the butcher takes care to regulate his prices so as to secure a remunerative profit on his outlay. Prime parts of beef are sirloins, ribs and rounds; of mutton, legs and loins. Middling pieces of beef are top ribs, back ribs, and silverside; of mutton, shoulders. Inferior pieces of beef are shins, brisket and flank, clod, or shoulder, sticking piece, or neck; of mutton, necks and breasts. The prices given in the table are such as would be paid for meat of the best quality. ”

“ Farmers used to kill their own stock and sell the meat in the nearest town, but now there are great meat-packing centers to which they ship the live stock and where it is turned into canned meat or sent in refrigerator trains or ships to all parts of the world, and because of the intense cold in which it is kept, the meat will remain fresh for months. The packing industry amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars a year. ”