are confident that its introduction will open Europe and every part of the globe as a market for the stock-raisers of America.

While science has thus triumphed in transporting fresh meats for a long distance, it has also won another victory in preserving them for a very long period, and in so compact a form as to be easily transported all over the world, thus economizing vastly the sources of supply; inasmuch as thou- Compressed sands of cattle were formerly slaughtered in South America, Aus- meats. tralia, and Texas, for their horns, hides, and tallow, while their flesh was lost, because no way was known of preserving it. This problem of keeping meat for a long time is an old one among scientists, and Professor Liebig's "extract of beef" has been followed by numerous imitations. The chief objection to Liebig's "extract of beef" and its imitations has been, that it could be used only in liquid form. It is only recently that the preservation of solid meats has been possible. A New-York company has a unique process for this purpose. The beef, or other meat, is first dried by a patent blowing and steam-evaporating process, after the removal of all bone, and fatty or gristly substances. It is then packed in extremely thin slices, which will retain. their good qualities for an unlimited period in any climate. In fact, nothing remains in the meats that can decay. A quarter of a pound of it is equal to a pound of solid meat.

ture.

The manufacture of compressed cooked meats is a new industry in this country. It began two years ago, and has now assumed almost gigantic proportions. England has received cooked meats from Australia for twenty years; but the process there differs greatly from the American method. Mode of The American meats, however, bring better prices in England manufac to-day, and bid fair to outstrip all foreign articles. About 750,000 cans per month are produced by the two American houses, and from 3,000 to 4.000 cattle per week are slaughtered in Chicago for this purpose. For the canning of corned-beef and beef-tongues only the best materials are selected, tough and stringy parts being discarded. The Western States naturally lead the way in this industry, as they are nearer the main sources of supply and the fertile grazing-lands of the North-West. The live animals are brought to Chicago, and, after inspection, are slaughtered in the abattoirs of the company. The carcasses are cut into the required weight, and the bone, sinew, and gristle eliminated. After another inspection, the meats are ready for the curing process. The best portions of the meat are exposed to the action of steam in immense wooden vats. Metal vats would be very undesirable, on account of the liability to mineral poisoning. The beef is then packed in strong tin cans of various sizes, containing two, four, six, and fourteen pounds each. They are hermetically sealed, and the contents will keep pure and fresh in any climate for many years. They have none of that musty flavor which was formerly inseparable from canned meats, and retain their flavor a long time after being removed from their metallic envelops. The Australian method of can

ning differs from the American in this, that the former cooks the meat whole in cans, while the latter cooks it in small pieces in wooden vats, as already described. The Australian cans often present a peculiar appearance after the cooling process, as the sides are sometimes contracted, and look as if they had been subjected to pressure. The extent of the American industry is also shown in the number of employees, the salaries, &c., of a Chicago firm. In one establishment 7,000 men and 150 girls are employed, and the pay-roll is $30,000 a month. The floor of the packing-house covers four acres. The refrigerator will accommodate 3,330,000 pounds. Five boilers, with a capacity of 80,000 pounds, are used for rendering tallow from marrow, and five for furnishing steam for cooking and the elevators.

meats.

Cooked meats by the Australian method have been known in America for twenty years; but the process is very imperfect. Owing to its inferiority, the sales of those meats have been poor. The demand for compressed cooked meats, on the contrary, has been so great, that there is a prospecExport of compressed tive business with governments in supplying them with this article. It is hoped that something may be accomplished in the way of supplying the European belligerents. Large invoices are now sent to London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, &c. Germany and France do not buy them as readily yet as Great Britain; but the promise is good of a large trade eventually in those countries. "The London Grocer" stated recently, that, during one week, 11,270 cases of packed meat were received at Liverpool from America. Each case contained twelve cans, making a total of 135,240 cans. This, however, is an average estimate, as one house in this country has frequently sent out 20,000 cases per week.

CHAPTER XI.

BUTTER AND CHEESE.

HE history of American dairying was a comparatively quiet and uneventful one until the middle of the present century, and progress was comparatively slow in its development until about that time. As we have already remarked in discussing neat-cattle, our stock was of poor quality Slow progduring the last century, and its improvement not fairly inaugurated ress in beuntil 1825-50. The earlier efforts at improvement, too, were ginning. directed rather to the perfection of our beef than to increase the quantity and quality of the milk. The importations of foreign breeds were mostly of shorthorns until 1850. A little before that time the importation of Ayrshires, Jerseys, and Alderneys, was undertaken. During the next decade the dairyinterest was confined mostly to New England and the Middle States, with a little activity in the North-West. Not until the conception of the modern cheese-factory system, and the demonstration of its marked success, did the West give much attention to the subject.

Cheese is altogether the older of the two sister products of the dairy; and its first manufacture, more or less crude, began away back in the obscure past. It was a recognized article of food with the Greeks and early Cheese. Romans, to whom butter was known only as an ointment for the

toilet, not as an article of diet. Even yet, in many parts of Europe, butter is sold by apothecaries as a vegetable oil for medicinal preparations, though not used exclusively for such purposes by any means. Unsalted butter, too, is used to a great extent by Europeans. The practice of salting it—doubtless intended originally for preserving it, but afterwards resorted to for the tasteseems to be more of an English and American custom. Partly from the nature of the two preparations, and partly because of the greater attention given to cheese-making, this article is found in far greater variety in Europe than is butter; and many of the delicate and peculiar varieties of foreign cheese have been unequalled by any American product for flavor, whereas no butter in the world surpasses that of our dairies.

Until about 1830 cheese was made in this country by the farmers exclu

making.

sively, and generally in their own farmhouses, in small quantities. The cheeses were taken to the neighboring village or town, and exEarly history of cheese- changed for groceries or dry-goods, without any thought of the trade with large cities, or the export business. If, in the course of the season, the housewife made more than a dozen cheeses of thirty or forty pounds each, she thought she was doing unusually well. However, the demand for this product continually increased among the workingclasses at home and abroad; and our export trade, chiefly with England, began as early as 1790.

First exportation.

Along toward 1830 the profits to be realized from cheese-making, which Progress in was more remunerative than any other branch of agriculture in the Middle and Eastern States, began to be realized. In Herkimer County, New York, a change began to take place in the methods of manufacture which had been formerly in use. The herds had

cheesemaking.

Herkimer

corn-cribs. These were, for the most part, simple, unpretentious one-story structures, distinguished from the other out-buildings by closelyCounty. battened cracks and protruding stovepipe. The apparatus was simple and rude, and the system of manufacture a family's secret, imparted with wise looks and an oracular phrase. Skill was vested in intuition: it was the maiden's dower, the matron's pride. . . . It was during this period of severe application and large rewards that Herkimer County achieved that reputation for fancy cheese which is still her traditional right."

Cheese product prior to 1850.

An idea of the distribution of the cheese-production at the end of twenty years of this experience may be gathered from the following statement of the cheese production, in pounds, from

the census of 1850:

From this it will be seen that New York made nearly half of the country's product; and that, except Ohio, the New-England States were the only others that yielded any considerable quantity. The only other State besides the abovenamed which made over half a million pounds was Indiana, which is credited with 624,564 pounds.

tem devised.

It was just at this time that the factory system was invented, which, being widely imitated, gave so great a stimulus to the business. Factory sysIt may be remarked in this connection, that not only in this country, but also in Europe, was the " American system" adopted. The cheese factory is the gift of the New-York dairymen to the world.