TOUGH BEFF.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1043, 8 April 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

TOUGH BEFF.

Time was when tender beef was obtainable, -beef that was juey, well garnished with fat, and-.hardly,to : ovjr-. cooking!" Now the man who finds a piecfof. tender beef draws the rarest of prizes in the butcher's .lottery,, _Beef £ia uniformly tougli. It is even stririgy;~iii a' rule,'and its very : fatf ■when : it has any, .is hard and, Wasteless. iTYhatj let up inquire /in a apirit of, reverence for ; both 'truth', '.is of .-this'great' •' ~,Not was'madeMn these' columns to! the, discovery of 'an.''Oliio philo-- : .gopher concerning, {he iiharige'dt. th f e' iriclina'' tiohVof tie earth's'! ,;phio dow: not possess anionopioly of .this'ijisooyery; grieybus' as the fact may seeni'to thepatrikic of that State. ; Philoaopherfl, residing 'without her | borders ( haye put'foM'ifie I 'theory that the, earth either!ha^'. changed 1 Kfer.' josi-' tion in reference .tothe plane of tlje or,.is about' to change" it. .'ThWmust' be' some truth in an opinion so \vidoly shared by different scientific persons,; and ,'it'.is quite possible that Prof.' Whyte,' of Olympia University, < lias discovered' precisely lii what consists! the' recent, Alleged' ;eccentriciti'es' ;of the earth's conduct,. He holds'that'schange' in the inclination , of 'tlie 'axis' haS lately place,, but,that the pole is'still osoillating betweeh''its old posifaoifand Its now. one j : , just as a pendulum.when set in motion will oscillate until it' Mally becom'es quiescent, This oscillation of the earth has now b'erin .going on since the year 1j874, and will continue, growing byde ; grees for at least thirty yearslongef;; •If this theory'be true, it explains' the toughness of .jrecent beef. .As every ,0110 knows, jthe muscles of every animal , becblha tough just in proportion as they are exercised.' In a recent number'of-the FijtGaielte 'this matter is length in'the course of an able article on the 'price of butcher's meat; .It,' is/shown',' that -while''a blacksmith is !almMt nnsale ; abie : .in Fiji|| in consequence'of .'his extfenioioiighness, and a sailor, brings,but-six,'kiyis'per ponhd^—the kiyi being equivalent to. one and three-eights of a half-penny—a pleasure tourist 'is worth seventeen-,kiyis per pound,; and a prime quality, of missionary "residily' command! twenty-eight kiyis. . Furthermore, itappeiri that while the., price, of'.'.missionary has riser ivery little during the lastfive years, .the prici of sailors and tourists has ; fallen, althbuglijii neither'case has there; lje'en^any marked in crease in the supply. The"'&«««< romes t( theiConclusion; that meat of, all des'criptibrii is growing steadily.tbiigherj with 'the solitary exception of imiasionary, which has'no l sensibly deteriorated 'in quality! 'ahd tha* this growing toughness of sailors and tourist has: inade.it neppssary to' lpiVef .the m'arkei price from ;teu and twenty-five kiyis,' whicl latter prices easily obtained - five year: ago, toTsix and to seventeen 1 kiyis,''' ; It is ! undoubtedly one' and the sabe causi which renders, beef. as Well, as tourists tougher than they were in former, yearai I is well established that' a" sailor's legs, whicl he really uses very little in comparison witl his arms, are the tougher of the' two, am this is due to the fact that the unsteady nio tion of, a vessel the sailor to con stantly brace himself ; in order'..to keep on hi feet, or, in. other- words, to- constantly kee; his leg! muscles in a state of tension, Th oscillation of the earth is haying' the sam effect upon cattle,. It is true . that we do no perceive that the earth is oscillating any mor than we perceiv,? the motion of the earth oi its axis, but every living' creature on th earth's surface that walks by.,means of legs including.both,cattle and tourists, is'com polled'to brace, itself precisely as the sailo braces;himself at sea while standing or walk ing oil a: vessel's deck. ■ Thus ; tho legs 0 cattle become hard and firm, and, to a men surable extent, tho: entire, muscles of- th body grow tougher. This is the triie'explana tion of tho phenomenon ,of . the growin] toughijess of beef. „ This theory is confirmed by the fact, tha tough beef is always found in countries tha are subject to earthquakes.. In South Italy where-slight earthquakes occur almost ever; day, beef is so tough as to be nearly uneat able, while in the Proan Islands, whero th earth shakes 011 an average once ever; twenty-four minutes, the. flesh of cattle is si impenetrably tough that it is used by. th natives for shields, and the distinguished ex piorer,' Sir John Wainwright, tolls, us that 1 rifle-sliot fired from a distance of twelve pace failed to penetrate a porter-house steak car ried on the left arm of a warrior, It is als' affirmed that the steward of the Blaster—Si John's; vessel-attempted, to out up a Proai ox forj the mess; and after turning the edg of all the tools in his or the carpenter's poa session, finally had recourse to gunpowder with the help of which.he blasted tho o,x int fragments, from one. of which a serviceabl grindstone was made. Perhaps our. cattl never attain to this-degree of toughness, bu if tlie oscillations of tlie earth continue to thirty years, as Professor White assures ut tliey will, roast-beef will become as inedibl as boarding-house chicken, and as iudige tible as plum pudding or asphalte side-wa 1 -New. York Times,- . -