Dry Thawing of Sheep. TO THE EDITOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2509, 16 April 1902, Page 18

Dry Thawing of Sheep. TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —In Drover's notes of last week I am leported (probably a printer's error) as spying that the cost of drv-thawmg a sheep oi a lamb is Is 4d (one shilling and fourpence). lliis is wiong and misleading. The cost ot diy-thawing a '•heep or a lamb will not exceed id. and may will be less, as, keep ofi c uttmg or tearing the co\ er«, and that need not be done, they will last a very long time. The only wear and teai they are subject to is drawing them on to a joint or carc«.se of meat which is hanging up, and tying them on. Let them hang unmoved theie till the meat is free'y thawed, then remove them, when the meat so protected is completely dry .and looking as though it had never been frozen. Ihe actual cost uithei for teai and wear of cover handling is so small as to be almost unstatablc if it were done in anything like a wholesale way. Now in case some of your readers are not acquainted with the Smithfield stone, let ma say that it is, Blb, not 141b, l'ke the stone avoirdupois, and that an advance of 4d per &tone a& a icsult of diy-thawing is \d per lb, or 2s 6d on a 601b sheep , or, for example, 33s 4d extra money for an SOOlb carcase of beef. Of course, where it is sold as home killed or as Yankee chilled, diy thawed meat will bring a greater increase — just according to what it is represented to be- -and sold for. In your notes in times past I often see you lament so much of our meat being . c o!d as Home killed. Now, Sir, let me say that it is not possible to do this to any extent, if at all, at Smithfield market, because the meat exposed there is only a fewhours out of the cold stores, is in couise of thawing, is all wet and sloppy, and cannot be sold for other than what it is, but when the sweating process is over, and the meat fully thawed, in spite of its water-sodden appealance, a good deal of it is then sold by retail shopkeepers as Home killed. I saw plenty of that, and in introducing dry-thawing to the meat trade at Home, I have put into their hands a thing which enables them to sell practically as much as they have a maikf-t for as Home killed, or chilled, or what they please, and that, Sir, is just the reason why I am urging on the freezing companies the necessity of drythawing their meat themselves at the other end bafore they sell it Then, having by drythawing restored the appearance which the meat had before freezing, they can .sell at much better prices. To continue sellmsr mir meat wet when we can just as well j^ell it dry, or to continue selling it cheap when others can seLl it dear, is surely suicide and folly. While others are hesitating and 'afraid to use this thing, or are waiting for the fic?zing companies to put it into use for them, perhaps many farmers can hardly yet believe it i.« heie. I am now shipping my own growing of meat, and more too. to people who are using the process at the other end, wheie the meat is sold on commission for my own benefit. It i<- open to others to do so too. Thanking you m anticipat.on, — I am. etc , A II CiupmaXi Awakino, Kuiow, April 1.1