THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1875, 28 October 1887, Page 7

THE FROZEN MEAT TRADE.

A Proposal for Sending Meat Home Packed

in Oatmeal— lts Advantages— The Mutton Arriving in Better Condition than when Shipped— No Danger of Loss. EDITOR WITNESS.

Sir,— The conviction has been growing upon me for some time that the manner in which the frozen meat is put into the market is one cause of the want of success of that industry. I trust you will give space for my views in the Witness, and that they may be copied into other papers, and that those interested may reduce them to practice. I have been informed that the meat is soft and clammy, and of a bad colour when placed beside newly-killed meat, something like what the animal would be

if drowned. What I would suggest would be to do away with the cloth, and pack the quarters in oatmeal. Venison and game are often sent from the tfg&h to London in that way, and people who know good mutton often get the butcher to pack the legs in oatmeal for a week or two before it is required. This treatment is found to make ewe almost equal to wether, and ordinary mutton equal to feoufchdown. I have seen ifc practised in Dunedin, and could name citizens who always have it done. The carcasses would require to be packed in square boxes, well put together, and in layers, the interstices being filled up with the meal. The packing would keep the mutton in shape, and the lid could be screwed firmly down and hooped, when I have no doubt the mutton would arrive as sound and sweet as a nut, and improved by the voyage, instead of being deteriorated. This method would save the clofch, the boxes would be worth their cost, while the meal would also be a marketable commodity. Slaughtering places would be erected all over the country, and would become the

nucleus of towns. The meat, packed when cool, with our means of carriage, could be sent directly on board ship to the freezing chamber, so obviating the cattle being knocked about in trains, and reducing expenses, and the boxes could without trouble be distributed all over Great Britain, as when once frozen they would keep good for as long a time as would be necessary after being taken out of the freezing chamber. The oatmeal would find a ready sale at a price leaving 2s or 3s a bushel for the oats for food for dogs, pigs, and most live animals, and even for human food, being none the worse for the packing. Ifc used to be a custom to pask pigh' puddings in oatmeal, when they would remain good for months. Ifc may be that the want of success up to the present time may turn out; a blessing to the country, and be tbp means of introducing a new era of prosperity by opening up an unlimited market for our staple exports, meat and oats, and intro- j during a sj>- tern of alternate fanning of green and grain crops which will increase our productive powers to an unlimited extent. Seeing the iinportuuce of the subject, I again ask you to givH the scheme the support of the first journal ia New Zealand.— l am, &c,