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for flushing and washing the walls; also with electric hoists for raising the
cattle in the course of dressing, and an elaborate system of drainage. In
close proximity, and connected by elevated rails along which the sides of
beef are conducted, is an extensive well-ventilated cooling shed, constructed
with light from the north, so as to exclude, as far as possible, the rays of the
sun. A pig slaughterhouse, fitted in the manner most approved by modern
experts, and a large cooling shed for the dressed carcasses of pigs, is provided;
and also a Podewil apparatus for the destruction of condemned meat, slaughterhouse
refuse, &c. Probably experience will suggest some details in which
further improvements may yet be made in any case it is a laudable attempt
to keep pace with the times, and a great improvement on the dark, dirty,
insanitary places which until now have done duty as slaughterhouses at the
first Cattle Market in England.
2. British Country-Killed.—Taken altogether this is the finest meat
the Londoner gets. The trade in Scotch beef has been affected by the
conditions previously mentioned, but a great deal of very excellent beef has
been sent from the Aberdeenshire districts. There has also been an abundance
of both English and Scotch mutton throughout the year, the quality of which
is unsurpassed in any market in the world. The prevalence of tuberculosis
has militated against any great development of the home-grown pig trade;
and the laxity of inspection at some other centres has diverted supplies away
from London.
Taking these two sections together, it is encouraging to find that in spite
of adverse conditions prevailing during the late summer and autumn months
the home producer has more than held his own, and that a very
creditable increase in the tonnage of British meat has found its way to the
Central Markets.
3. Foreign-Killed., i.e., Continental, chiefly from Holland, Denmark
and Belgium.—There was a moderate supply of Dutch mutton in the early
months of the year, but during the fall there has been a very large quantity
of which the quality has for the most part been excellent; it has the
effect of "knocking the bottom out of the market," i.e., of depressing
prices to a level at which they are no longer remunerative to the
home producer. Of pork there has also been a fair quantity, but in this
respect there has not been the tendency to swamp the market so observable
with the mutton. A Netherland Royal decree was issued on June 24th
making it compulsory that all meat sent from Holland to the United Kingdom
should be inspected, and none except that which bore the label affixed by the
Inspectors should be allowed for shipment ; this, we were informed, was to
come into operation on January 1st, 1909, but late in December the Authorities
suddenly altered their minds, and deferred the date at which it would become
effective ; probably the same effect can be achieved by the regulations drawn
up by our own Local Government Board, but that does not excuse the
vacillation of the Dutch Government. More stringent regulations, combined
with a system of meat inspection on an altogether wider basis, have been