brine for the Atlantic States or for shipment to Europe. The
trade was confined to the winter months, as in the heat of summer
the meat became rancid before the pickle penetrated.
The third stage of development followed the introduction
of refrigeration which, by the artificial creation of winter condi-
tions in the packing-houses during the hot summer months,
enabled packing to be carried on throughout the year. Subse-
quent developments were the extension of refrigeration first to
railway and secondly, to ocean transport. The word * revo-
lutionise ”’ can safely be used to describe the effects of the intro-
duction of refrigeration. Although after .Carré had invented
it in 1861, many experiments had to be made before it became
the efficient and reliable vehicle of to-day, it gave marketing
a completely new aspect, so far as the United States was con-
cerned, and greatly simplified the time factor. Hitherto, meat;
once killed, had either to be * cured —a not too successful
process in the case of beef and mutton—or sold in the course of
a few days whatever the state of the market. Refrigerated
meat could be held in the cool chamber for several weeks and
marketed in good condition and in an orderly fashion according
fo demand. It made possible, too, the concentration of the
processes of killing and dressing, for it practically annihilated
distances; districts hundreds of miles from the packing plant
could now be served with meat as easily as the district in the
vicinity of the plant itself. Large scale production also became
possible; packers were no longer merely pork-packers but also
oeef packers; the recruitment of the chemist and the engineer,
the evolution of efficient machinery, the elimination of waste,
the skilful utilisation of by-products. all naturallv followed.
It was at this moment that such men as Swift, Morris and
Armour entered .the business in Chicago, and it was largely due
to their ability that the trade assumed its present form. Many
difficulties had to be overcome, the railway companies were
indifferent or antagonistic—they had a good freight trade in live
cattle—the eastern butchers were opposed to the new meat, the
public. were prejudiced against it. To overcome these obstacles,
the packers set themselves to establish their own depéts and
shops and to build their own refrigerator railway cars, so that,
from their standpoint, the whole country became, in effect, one
market worked from one centre, namely, Chicago, which
developed into the greatest packing-centre in the world; to its
stockyards live beasts were shipped from the south, centre and
west, while from its packing-houses flowed the finished product
to all the States of the Union.
These developments soon brought the “ dressed ” meat from
the packing centres in the middle west to the sea-board in the
east; now ocean freight was brought into service to allow the
further spread to Europe. Hog-products and salted beef were
alreadv being forwarded to England in large quantities: refri-