KILLING AND FREEZING MEAT.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1317, 16 June 1883, Page 3

KILLING AND FREEZING MEAT.

The following description of a killing and freezing establishment in the city of Chicago cannot fail to interest our readers, especially as it must become to us before long what it now is to the city of Chicago, viz, the staple and most profitable of all industries. The extent and importance of this business can be gathered from the fact that the receipts of the Chicago stock yards for last- year showed a total of 1,498,550 head of cattle,' exclusive of calves The largest number of cattle dealt with in 'one day was 11,063: — “ During the afternoon the purchases of the morning are driven into pens connected with the abattoirs, where they are fed, watered, and allowed to rest. This is done in order to quiet them, and cool them thoroughly before killing When it is decided that they have attained the proper temperature and composure, they are driven a few at a time up a gently-inclined plane that leads into a narrow pissage. From »his passage pens, each intended for the accommodation of but a single animal, open by doors that are the same size as the passage. Having entered one of these traps, of which the door has closed behind him, • the steer must stand motionless, as he has no room to move in any direction. The cattle are “ handled ” into these pens by men stationed on a platform above them, and provided with long saplings armed with blunt spikes.

When the pens are filled, a quiet man, armed with a long, slender iron spear, of which the head is broad, bright, and keen-edged as a razor, walks deliberately along the platform above the pens. He stops over each one, glanees down through an openng at his feet, thrusts his spear through the same opening, using so little force that the motion is merely an easy dip of the weapon, withdraws it and moves along. The thrust of •the spear is followed so instantly by the fall of the animal that unless the delivery of the blow has been noted, and its purnose understood, it is almost impossible to realise that a bullock has been thus easily and quickly killed. As the animal is struck by the spear on a line between theears, the spinal cord is severed, and he drops dead without knowing the cause of his sudden demise. In the building beyond these pens are sixty or seventy 11 beds,” as the floor spaces directly in front of the pen doors are designated, which are scrupulously clean, though very wet The pen door is now raised, and a chain is slipped over the animal's head, and he is dragged from the pen by a steam driven Windlass, on to a bed. Here he is immediately set upon by a gang L of butcl.era, each of whom performs his allotted task and no more. < >ne stalwart fellow strikes the dead animal a couple of blows in the forehead with a sledge hammer; another lops off his hind legs, and makes a few rapid passes with his curved knife: others are at work upon the fore legs and makes a few rapid passes with their curved knives; others are at work upon the fore legs and head; and when each has completed the work allotted to him, he passes on to another bullock, and another specialist takes his place. A minute later, and the carcase, transformed into two sides of beef, has been washed, dried and hung upon wheeled hooks that run

I upon a railway pendant from the i ceiling, along which it is trundled I towards the first cooling room. In this first cooling-room the temperature is between 40 degrees to 50 degrees, and here the sides remain until all animal heat has left them, when, thoroughly chilled, they are moved on into the cold and darkness of the storage rooms, the temperature of which is not allowed to rise above 40 degrees, and the air of which is perfectly dry, no traces of moisture exhibiting themselves even upon the walls. Their storage capacity is 5,000 beeves. Of this meat each quarter is cased in an envelope of clean _ strong muslin, by workmen clad in surprisingly white garihents that reach nearly to their heels. When ready, the quarters are rolled on to a portion of the track which is connected with a pair of scales, the weight is quickly noted, and the masses of meat are shouldered by the men in white and borne to the refrigerator car that occupies a track but a few paces .distant. The refrigerator car is not opened until its destination is reached when it is unloaded, it possible at night. The ice cylinders at each end of the car are replenished three or four times during the trip from Chicago to New York, more than a ton of broken ice being required for each replenishing. After this has been disposed of, the remainder of the bullock is by no means valueless. The horns and hoofs go to the comb and button makers, the “ switches,” or long haired ends of the tail, to the hair-curlers for mattrasses, and the hide is dropped into the great cellar of the building, where it is salted until sufficiently cured to go to the Pennsylvania tanneries. All refuse remaining, even the bipod, is immediately utilised in the adjoining fertiliser factory The moment one lot of carcasses have been removed from the “ beds,” they are cleansed with warm water and “ squilgees,” or rubber mops, and made ready for new arrivals. Jhe order and regularity of the establishment are remarkable. Experiments have shown that beef thus killed and handled can be kept perfectly sound and good for a month or even more.