STUTTGART.

477

promoted  by  a  “  Wurtemberg  League  for  Trade  and  Industry,”  whose  object  it
is  “  to  combat  in  all  legal  ways  the  injurious  excrescences  of  economic
life,  and  especially  the  co-operative  stores,  hawking  and  travelling  in  the  retail
trade,  itinerant  cheap-jacks,  the  warehouses,  and  the  contract  system.”  Both
the  co-operators  and  the  private  traders  publish  small  newspapers  which
energetically  advocate  their  respective  theories  of  trade.

Meat.
The  one  public  market  hall  of  Stuttgart  is  so  small,  and  the  provision
made  within  it  for  the  sale  of  meat  so  limited,  that  as  a  centre  of  distribution
it  is  of  little  consequence  as  compared  with  the  butchers’  shops  which
are  to  be  found  :'n  every  important  street.  It  is  not  the  general  rule  for
butchers  to  do  an  all-round  trade  in  fresh  meat  ;  the  best  butchers  confine
themselves  to  beef,  mutton,  and  veal  ;  many  butchers  do  not  sell  mutton  at  all,
and  pork  is  largely  sold  in  special  shops  devoted  entirely  to  that  meat,  both
fresh  and  cured,  or  prepared  in  the  form  of  sausage.  The  slaughter-house,
through  which  all  the  meat  exposed  for  sale  must  pass,is  in  private  hands.  It
is  here,  however,  that  the  official  veterinary  inspection  of  animals  intended
for  food  takes  place,  an  inspection  which  is  thorough  and  affords  the  public  every
reasonable  guarantee  against  injury.  The  grazing  districts  of  \\  urtemberg  supply
Stuttgart  with  a  very  large  proportion  of  its  flesh  food,  except  in  the  case  of  beef,  of
which  much  comes  from  Bavaria  through  the  markets  of  Munich  and  Nuremberg  ;
during  1905  Austria  also  sent  a  considerable  number  of  live  cattle  to  Stuttgart,
but  since  the  introduction  of  the  new  Customs  Tariff  this  source  of  supply  has
been  cut  off.  Mutton  comes  from  various  parts  of  Wurtemburg  and  also  from
Bavaria.  The  pork  is  largely  of  home  production,  but  some  comes  from  North
Germany.  The  veal  is  likewise  of  Wurtemberg  origin.
Yet  the  Stuttgart  working  classes  are  not  great  meat  eaters;  as  in
Wurtemberg  generally,  farinaceous  food,  in  the  form  of  puddings  and  especially
dumplings,  takes  the  place  on  the  dinner  and  supper  table  which  in  North
Germany  is  given  to  meat  and  meat  preparations.  Of  mutton,  as  in  most  parts
of  Germany,  hardly  any  is  eaten—a  certain  prejudice  appears  to  be  the  explanation ­
  ;  and  fish  is  even  more  disregarded.  It  is  a  notable  fact  that  the  mutton
consumed  in  Stuttgart  does  not  form  3  per  cent,  of  the  entire  flesh  food  which
passes  yearly  through  the  abattoir.
The  meat  consumption  of  Stuttgart,  including  fowl  and  game,  averaged
over  the  whole  population,  amounted  in  1900,  when  the  maximum  was  reached,
to  147*8  lb.  per  head;  in  1903  it  was  143  lb.  per  head;  in  1904  it  was
140*8  lb.  per  head  ;  and  in  1905  the  consumption  was  estimated  at  125  5  lb.
per  head,  though  the  data  for  calculation  are  no  longer  so  exact  since  the
abolition  of  the  municipal  tax  on  meat  in  April  of  the  latter  year.  Imported
sausage  is  not  included  in  this  estimate.
An  analysis  of  156  returns  of  weekly  meat  consumption  obtained  for  the
purpose  of  the  present  report  from  working-class  families,  containing  655
persons,  showed  a  weekly  consumption  per  head  of  201  ounces,  which  would
mean  a  little  over  67  lb.  a  year.  Of  the  meat  consumed  42  per  cent,  was  beef,
19  per  cent,  pork  and  bacon,  and  27  per  cent,  sausage.
The  Stuttgart  working  man  has  other  peculiarities  in  the  matter  of  his  meat
diet.  He  will  not  eat  fat  and  he  has  a  rooted  aversion  to  minced  meat,  which  in
North  Germany  is  the  principal  ingredient  in  several  dishes  and  especially  in
fricandedles  and  a  highly-seasoned  dish  known  as  “German  steak.”  The  fat
rejected  in  the  butcher’s  shop  is  melted  down  and  serves  culinary  purposes  in  other
ways.  Smoked  bacon  is  seldom  eaten  raw  in  Wurtemberg,  because  it  is  not
thoroughly  cured,  whether  fat  or  streaky.  Such  streaky  bacon  as  is  so  eaten  is
not  of  local  origin,  but  comes  either  from  the  Black  Forest  or  North  Germany,
though  also  in  a  less  degree  from  the  Swabian  Alp,  a  mountain  district  between
the  Neckar  and  the  Danube,  the  “  country  bacon  ”  (Bauernspeck)  from  which
has  a  high  reputation.
In  Stuttgart  as  in  some  parts  of  Bavaria  it  is  customary  to  charge  a  uniform
price  for  most  cuts  of  meat,  whether  beef,  mutton,  veal,  or  pork.  The  only