SOME FACTS ABOUT MEAT-EATING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XVI, 17 October 1896, Page 477

SOME FACTS ABOUT MEAT-EATING.

The reported decline in the production of meat in some of the grazing sections has led to the collection of statistics of the consumption of animal food. The American is the greatest meat-eater in the world, and if scarcity of meat should happen, Americans would be the greatest sufferers. According to the census, the 70.000,000 people in the country consume 4,50c.000 tons of meat each year ; or, according to a calculation starting from another basis, each inhabitant of the United States consumes 150 pounds of meat per year, as against 11S pounds consumed by the average Englishman, 77 pounds by the average Frenchman, 64 pounds by the average German, and 26 pounds by the average Italian. The United States produces 17,000,000 tons of meat per year, nearly half of which is beef, 5,500,000 being pork and 3.500,000 mutton. It is often stated in the river valleys that the American is a pork eater, the corn of those valleys being consumed in the shape of pork, but in fact the proportion of pork eaten in this country is to meat as 5 5 to S. In certain sections, as on this coast, the consumption of pork is comparatively small ; why, it is not easy to see. Cattle are raised in abundance on the ranges in this State, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona, and are sent to market prematurely, but no one seems to realize the profit which could be made by raising hogs on a large scale. The kind of food consumed in different countries varies largely with meridian. In the northern tier of States the annual consumption of meat exceeds 150 pounds, which is the average for the whole country, and does not vary far from half a pound per head per day ; in the southern countries of Europe it is only about one third as much, and is diminishing each decade. Strange to say, the consumption in Ireland is about the same, say, 55 pounds, though Ireland is a large producer of meat. In southern countries the place of meat is taken by grain and fruit. Whether the race is a gainer by the substitu-

tion of vegetable for animal food, or vice versa, is a much-debated question. Vegetarians insist that man would be stronger, more healthy and more long-lived if the proportion of meat food were decreased and that of vegetable food increased ; but that must largely depend on climatic conditions. The reports of medical officers in the army go to show that soldiers who are mainly fed on meat are the best fighters, but they suffer more from gunshot wounds than troops which are fed on a vegetable diet. Soldiers who are fed on rice—as the Sepoys of India and the soldiers in japan—seem to possess more powers of endurance than those whose rations consist largely of animal food ; and the proportion of men who are always able to report for duty is larger among the former than among the latter. Over a thousand years ago the date-eating Moors proved more than a match for the pork-eating Goths in Spain ; they could march further and fight longer. If the great contest between Christian and Asiatic which has been predicted should come to pass, it will be in a sense a combat berween meat eaters and vegetarians, and we shall then be able to test the relative value of the two aliments. To the American food means meat. The people of this nation consume a great deal of wheat and corn : indeed. a general failure of either crop would involve a famine which would cause widespread distress ; but it is impossible to get the best work out of the American unless he is supplied with regular rations of beef, mutton and pork. Even fish will not take their place. When the Confederate Army surrendered at Appomatox the Federal Generals were perfectly well aware of its condition, and General Grant had taken his measures accordingly. In reply to General Lee’s pitiful appeal for his starving troops, a train of biscuit, coffee, sugar and other supplies was dispatched as a matter of course. But Grant knew the men he was fighting. ‘ Captain ,’ said he to an aid, ‘ride to the rear and start that drove of cattle to Confederate headquarters, and mark me, sir, ride like '