THE DRY-AIR PROCESS OF PRESERVING MEAT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5851, 31 December 1879, Page 3

THE DRY-AIR PROCESS OF PRESERVING MEAT.

(From the Sydney Daily Telegraph.) The discovery by Messrs. Bell and Coleman of the process of freezing meat in air from which every particle of moisture has been extracted, and of then preserving it in dry air which by mechanical means is kept many degrees below freezing point with a constant current maintained, promises to revolutionise not only the squatting interest in Australia, hut also several of our household and everyday manners and customs, in which there was notoriously great room for improvement. The squatters are very confident respecting the success of the Strathleven’s shipment, which is hardly to be looked upon as an experiment, and there is excellent reason for believing that their most sanguine expectations will be borne out. Should they be, a very important adjunct to tbo wealth of Australia will be created, and the value of our annual exports will be increased very materially—to be followed, as a matter of course, by a corresponding augmentation of the value of our importations, and our consequent wealth. Every acre of land on the continent, available for grazing either cattle or sheep," would soon be taken up, as the market to be opened is illimitable for meat *4 the price that the exporters talk of profitably selling it at in Europe. The squatters who are in possession of lands will see their way tc making dams, otherwise conserving water, an! putting down artesian wells. To very largely increase the carrying capacity of runs will be found profitable, because the market, besides being boundless and valuable, will be steady. Ihere will be no falling off in the demand. And -here is yet another favorable aspect which the new discovery discloses. When Australian tinned meats were sent home they were scorned by household servants, the working classes, and even by paupers. They

tasted as if they had had all what the people cdhd “the goodness” taken out of them. The British public has, at this time, been educated to the taste of eating meat from South America refrigerated by Bell and Coleman’s process, and has taken t--> it very kindly. Therefore there is the a.-snr d certainty that if Australian meat ei-n he landed in equal condition it will meet with equal favor. The hearts of the squatters are rejoicing within them at the splendid prospect that has been opened out, and the public may rejoice with them, not only because they will probably, under the new condition of things, be able to pay higher rents for iheir runs, but oa grounds that will affect every unit iu the community. Messrs. Bell and Coleman’s dry air process, and others very similar to it, are used very extensively in Liverpool by dealers in fresh meats of every description, and provision dealers generally. Provisions required for daily consumption are kept in chambers through which there is a constant current of dry air at 36 degrees Fahrenheit. The air, after compression and expansion, loses all its moisture in the intense cola, by it dropping to ihe ground bribe form of snowflakes, Iu England it is notorious that every summer a vast amount of valuable meat is wasted in consequence of the heat, and the want of fresh cool air. No one can form an idea approximate in accuracy of the immense quantity of meat destroyed every summer in this semi-tropical climate. Nor is this the only or the worst feat e in the case. An immense proportion' of that which is consumed on an Australian summer day has been slaughtered in the early morning. To say that it is unfit for human food might bo stretching the point, but there is not the shadow of a d»ubt that it is difficult of digestion, that it gives the stomach a very great deal of work it ought not to have imposed upon it, inasmuch as the digestive organs, although they are so frequently tested, are very delicate, and very liable, even with care, to be thrown out of order. If Bell and Coleman’s, or Hied, Hargreaves and Co.’s dry-air process of refrigeration were introduced into Sydney and employed, there is no reason why any one should eat meat that had not been killed and hung at least twenty-four hours—to the very great advantage of the health of the population. There would be more work done, and better work, if the people of the city were well fed with meat properly kept and properly cooked. No doubt the safe arrival of the Strathleven’a cargo, and the preparations which would then be made to similarly freight her and other ships, would give the proposition a fillip to supply the city during the summer months with fresh meat that had been kept iu cold chambers till it was wholesome food; but really there is no reason why the business should not be commenced at once. We know for certainty that meat can be thus preserved fresh and good for some days. The butchers know what they lose by waste during the summer months, and so do prudent housewives know what they lose. There need be no hesitation about pronouncing that meat kept only twenty-four hours in summer fresh and sweet is cheaper at Id. per lb. more money than meat which is cooked before it lias had time and opportunity to cool and to set.