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London Market, continues, and in this connection it is interesting to note that
a large number of Argentine store sheep are bought by Belgian farmers to
fatten, so far as we can learn, without any bad results such as carrying footand-mouth
disease.
5. Refrigerated Beef.—The best of this comes from the United States,
and is generally of excellent quality; for many years this had been relied upon
as furnishing good and cheap food for the masses, but home requirements have
grown, and good Chicago beef can only be sent here if there is something like
a certainty of it realising a fairly high price; consequently, the quantity has
been getting smaller, while the Argentine coming in increasing volume has
precluded the possibility of any such rise in price as would make larger shipments
from the United States profitable. Concerning the Argentine, we
should like to say a good word. Most of the works are in the hands of
British firms (though two large ones have passed to Americans
who market the produce in England), the trade is financed by British
capitalists, the cattle and sheep have been bred from stock imported from
Great Britain, and it seems likely that Argentina will play an important part
in the meat supply of this country for many years. Much of the beef has
been better made up for slaughter, and it is most interesting to note that if a
cargo is out of condition, it is generally a poor lot of beef; if a few quarters
amongst a lot are out of condition, those are almost invariably the weakest and
thinest; hence it seems fair to argue that if the beef is to arrive in good
condition it must be beef not lacking in substance to begin with. Such,
indeed, is our experience of refrigerated meat throughout, as, for instance, every
attempt to bring mutton at the comparatively high temperature of refrigerated
beef has been a failure simply because the carcass of mutton was of insufficient
bulk and thickness to remain rigid during the process of refrigeration.
If we might, without offence, give the meat traders a word of advice, it
would be "Look well to the Argentine meat supply, and take care that it
does not get monopolised by foreign speculators; then improve the quality of
the goods shipped by careful selection, by proper storage during the voyage,
and by rapid distribution on its arrival here." Some reference was made last
year to the Linley system of preserving beef in sterilized air. Several vessels
have been fitted up with the necessary apparatus, and whenever it has been
well selected and properly handled, it has arrived in a condition which argues
that the system has many advantages, but whenever beef of indifferent
quality has been shipped, it is too much to expect that any method of
preservation will make it into desirable meat.
6. Frozen Meat from New Zealand, Argentina and Australia—has
been of good quality throughout the year, the number of thin, wasted and
unsaleable carcasses being less than in any previous year. The principal
novelty was a small shipment of lambs from Natal, which arrived early in the
year, and of which there has been no repetition; they were of fair quality,
though carrying abundant evidence that the flock from which they were taken
had not been subjected to the many years of careful selection necessary to