THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8740, 12 March 1894, Page 2

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

[From a London Correspondent.]

The fact that during the year just closed no fewer than 2,514,5-11 carcasses of frozen sheep and lambs and 171,b40 quarters and pieces of beef arrived herefrom New Zealand and Australia alone (without counting 1,3<3,723 sheep from the Kiver Plate and 16,425 more from the Falkland Islands) affords striking evidence of the magnitude to which this trade has

developed during the 13 years Id has been in existence. The evidence of figures alone however, does not, after all, impress the imagination as vividly as a look bebiud the

I scenes, where the work of organizing this great industry—or what may be regarded as the " liou's share" of it—is carried on ' with a smoothness aud regularity which could hardly be surpassed in the smallest |_f business concerns. Rising on the south | side of the Thames, between Blackf riars- ! bridge and Waterloo bridge, is a collec- : tion of massive buildings, occupying altot gether no le_s than three and a half acres, constructed during the Jast two years— they are, iv fact, nob yet actually complete —for the express purpose of formiug a central depdt, whence the frozen meat supplies irom the Antipodes may be distributed throughout the United Kingdom. A visit to these buildings, which are due to the enterprise uf Nelson Brothers (Limited) is a perfect revelation as to the odds which the British farmer has to contend with in his apparently hopeless struggle against " foreign competition "; though, up.rt 'from this depressing fact, such a visit proves interesting in the extreme. To _egin with, chere is something decidedly Ntranga about the way of entering the main building, for instead of doing so in orthodox fashion fi-otn Lhe ground-floor, one enters from tbe sixth storey, to which one ia carried by a Hit. Of side doors there are none, and the only entrances are just under the roof. The reason for this arrangement is that, as cold-air .sinks, while warm air rises, it is batter to have the freezing chambers as low down as oossible, and to enter them from what, a miner would be inclined to call a "shall," by means of a "c;»ge" or,properly *-.p__kiug, -iJifc worked by hydraulic power, passing.brought he various "levels" j ot flcow. This art augcn.cnt minimises the chance of the cold air escaping iuto the atmosphere outside. Arriving ou the top floor one finds there a series of rooms j where the work of receiving, weighing, | and consigning is carried on. Some of these rooms are open at the side aud look out on the River Thames. Here there are j elaborately arranged elevators, or endless ! chains, with, at fixed distances, projecting irons, forming "cradles," where the carcasses of sheep can be placed direct from the barges into which they have been loaded from the ocean-going steamers in the docks. Put in one of these cradles, the sheep is carried by the elevator to the centre of the room on the sixth storey, and there it falls on to a table where men are at work sorting the carcasses according to the different brands, afterwards pushing them on trucks to the 4 "shafts," down which they are taken to the scries of freezing chambers in which they will bo stored as long as may bo necessary. It ia possible to raise as many as 1500 carcasses au hour in this manner from the river barges ; in fact, the elevators will work much faster than the men above can dispose of the carcasses falling on the table before them. It is no unusual thing for 12,000 sheep to be received here in the course of a day from the eight barges which are kept constantly working, though 10,000 ia regarded as au average day's work.

Such an importation as this renders necessary an extensive storage capacity, but it is soon found that there is nothing lacking iv this respect. Descending some steps intothe chamber beneath, the visitor find himself iv what at fir--.t looks like the tween decks of some gigantic ship, with "bays" about 23ft deep on each side of him, most of these piled ud witn sheep laid in their *' shirts" one on top ot another uutil there is an almost solid ma*9 of mutton. This, too, is a veritable frost, region. The air feels icily cold, and well ir, may, for the temperature is only -O* Fahr., and the elaborate series of pipes running the whole length of the chamber, and into each bay, are covered with hoar frost, which i-f at least an inch thick in places, aud sparkles and glitters in the glow of the electric light. It is necessary to have two men constantly employed in keeping the pipes clear, so that the maximum of cold which the pipes are capable of conveying may be secured. In the lowest of cold chambers, however, thepipe3 give very little trouble, as by the time the air reaches them from the-top storey it ha 3so far lost its humidity that the deposit of rime is very slight indeed. • The number of " bay's," even on this one floor, seem almost endless, and so extensive is the floor itself that it is divided into three sections, with fire-proof doors between each. Yet there are four other floors beneath of exactly the same size and description, and altogether it .is possible to store no fewer than 250,030 sheep in this oue building with an absolute guarantee that they, will be as fresh wheu they are brought out as when they were put in. The average stock iv hand is about 150,000. It is especially interesting to learn that there are still in the storage chambers some thousand-s of lambs which were 'received in London la3_ July, when far more were arriving 1 than the markets could dispose of to advantage. Instead of this surplus stock being thrown on the i market at an "alarming sacrifice," it has simply been left in the freezing stores until it. can be sold at a reasonable profit. There is, too, ths further advantage to the consumer iv this arraugement that a continuous lamb season ha. been rendered possible.

In addition to the vast collections of complete carcasses on every hand, one sees, also, thousands of single legs of mutton, and inquiry shows that these have been cut off from sheep which, although of prime quality, would bs too fat or too heavy to suit the requirements of the British market. The legs only, therefore, are sent over, the remainder being boiled down for taliow.

Returning to the top storey again, one seems to be in quite another climate after the twelve degrees of frost one has just left. At the other end of the series of rooms forming this top floor one looks down upon a large covered-in yard, where, by means of lifts and elevators, a number of railway vans are being loaded with sheep, which, sent down from the sixth storey, are goicg to all parts of the country, But the really busy time begins about 11 o'clock at night and goes on uutil six o'clock in the morning; for becween these hours* something like 30,000 carcasses will. duriDg the course of the week, be brought out of the freezing chambers and sent off to Smithfield Market. The visitor gets so accustomed to hearing big figures quoted that he is, perhaps, not so impressed as he ought to be when told that this one establishment is now dealing with frozen colonial sheep and lambs at the rate of about 1,500,000 a year, to say nothing of miscellaneous thousands of single joints, and 40,000 or £o,oo9quarters of beef from Queensland. A good deal of space in tbe buildiugs is devoted to machinery, and in this department —which suggests the tropics after tbe North Pole —one sees powerful machines for working the refrigerating apparatus, the hydraulic lifts, and the 1,600 electric lights—gas being found only in the offices. The icy cold temperature of the freezing chambers is produced by means of ammonia, which is first compressed, and then driven through the pipes until it reaches a point where, passing through an aperture about the size of the point of a

needle, it suddenly expands, assumes its { natural bulk, and, in so doing, produces ' intense cold. There are, too, appliances for sending a constant current of cold air throughout the whole series of chambers, so as to secure perfect veatilatlon. The sheep, for which all these elaborate preparations have been made, with the view of feeding the British public, are mainly bought direct from the"farmers iv Naw Zealand or Australia by representatives of the company, the amount paid beitig 2d per lb for animals not over 701b iv weight. The farmers also receiyo the skins, kidneys, and fat. A few are sent on consignment, but the other system is thought to work more satisfactorily, as under it the farmers know at once what they are to get, and they are saved tedious delays and possible disappointments. There are, altogether, twenty-two meatfreezing works in New Zealaud, of which thirteeu are in the North Inland aud nine in the South, and these works can freeze from 12,000 to 13,000 sheep in a day, or an aggregate of four million a year. The cost of a complete set of works capable of dealiug with 1000 sheep a day, is estimated at from £17,000 to £20,000. Eighty-eight vessels altogether have now been fitted with refrigerating apparatus, and these have a ma-imuia carrying capacity of 6,700,000 carcases. The cost for slaughtering, freezing, and putting the sheep oa board is from three-eighths of a penny to a halfpenny per lb; and the freight, iusurance. and London charges amount to about three-halfpence per lb, making the total cost to the importers 4d per lb, or a fraction under. The present market price for the best New Zealand mutton is 4_d per lb. To all these details it may be added that a further departure is contemplated at the establishment in question. It is proposed to have cold storage rooms where large quantities of colonial butter could be stored at one time by importers, who would also have a sample room placed at their disposal. The rooms are now ready, and only the turning of a tap 'is necessary to convert them at once into either cold or freezing chambers as desired. Uuder existing circumstances the importers seem to have a feverish anxiety to rush one ship-load of butter on to Che . market before another ship-load can arrive, the result being a fluctuation of prices which has led to heavy losses being sustained. If. however, a cold storage system for butter as well as meat were in , force in London, the "output" could be regulated according to actual requirements ; and as the amouut of butter coming to hand from Australia and New Zealand this season is expected to be somewhere about four times as great as it was last season, it is likely that the proposal referred to would afford a practical solution of what might otherwise prove a serious difficulty.