able to award the prize, although, in point of fact, the method 
of refrigeration, which was eventually to ensure abundant 
supplies both here and elsewhere, had already been successfully 
ittempted. 
In these early days, Australia seems to have led the way in 
practical experiments. The first successful method of shipping 
the flesh was that of canning, and Australian canned products 
were exhibited at the Great Exhibition in 1851. Following 
Liebig’s discoveries, extract of meat was also successfully 
prepared and exported. Used, at first, mainly by ships, by the 
year 1867 canned meats had become known on the English 
market, and, from that -time, have been regularly imported. 
Even to-day, when large quantities of frozen and chilled meat 
reach our shores, there is a large trade in canned meats from 
all the great meat-surplus countries. With the extension of 
refrigerating facilities even to the smaller cargo vessels, and 
with the opportunities of restocking from cold storage which are 
available to vessels at most of the great ports, canned meats are 
no longer an inevitable part of the dietary of a voyage, but they 
are still an important item of international commerce. At first 
they were relatively unsuccessful because they were not a sub- 
stitute for fresh (i.e., home-killed or refrigerated) beef; now 
shat fresh beef can be so readily transported, they remain in 
demand because they are not so much a substitute as an alter- 
native ministering to a different need. Frozen meat for millions 
of people is the dinner-table joint and does not have to face the 
competition of the tinned article; it is rather the bacon and 
ham of the breakfast table, or the meal carried to the mine or 
factory, which feels this competition. Canned meats are still, of 
course, an important item in ships’ stores, and as the ideal 
emergency ration whether on board ship, on the battlefield, or 
in the home, they are likely to retain a position of importance 
whatever may be the developments of the fresh meat trade. 
Moreover, as the demand is likely to continue, so the supply 
from countries which export fresh meat is likely to be assured, 
for canning provides an outlet (1) for cuts which are not in local 
demand; (2) for the parts trimmed off in dressing-meat either 
for export or for the local market, and (3) for beef and mutton 
which are not up to the quality required for the frozen meat 
trade, e.g., the ‘canners” in the United States and South 
American markets. Where meat-extract is specially prepared 
and is not merely the by-product of the freezing works, canning 
is also, as a rule, carried on. At times of low prices in the pro- 
ducing countries, the existence of canning outlets frequently 
helps to improve the producers’ returns; in the case of mutton, 
for example, the legs, for which there is always a good demand 
in this country, can be cut off and, if not sold locally, or if local 
demand is unsatisfactory, can be frozen and shipped, the rest 
of the carcase being canned—the process providing canned 
meat, meat extract and tallow. thus spreading the supply over 
more than one demand