CHEMNJTZ.
147
Meat.
Practically the whole of the meat supply of Chemnitz is of German origin,
the Kingdom of Saxony itself contributing one-third of the whole number of
stock of all kinds passing through the public abbatoir and stock yard in 1905.
Next to Saxony the most important sources of supply are the wholesale market
at Berlin, with 14& per cent. ; Pomerania, with 12 per cent. ; Bavaria, with
10 per cent. ; and the Prussian province of Saxony with 8£ per cent. The only
foreign source is Austria-Hungary, which contributed less than 1 per cent, of
the total meat supply in 1905.
The total meat consumption of Chemnitz in 1905, as estimated by the
municipal authorities from the slaughterhouse returns, amounted to 213,568 cwt.
or 98J lbs. per head of population, a decline of 8-^ per cent, as compared
with the previous year when per capita consumption amounted to 108 lbs.
These figures, it should be stated, do not include poultry, as to the consumption
of which no data are available, but which, so far as working-class families are
concerned, is of no statistical importance. Nearly 83 per cent, of all meat eaten
is either pork or beef, as may be seen from the following Table in which the
aggregate per capita consumption of meat is resolved into its component
parts :—
Per capita consumption
in 1905.
Proportion of all meats
consumed.
Pork (including Bacon)
Beef..
Veal...
Mutton
Horse
Dog ...
Goat...
All meat
lbs.
46-66
3500
9-61
4-68
2-64
•06
-03
Per cent.
47-29
35-47
9 74
4-74
2 67
•06
-03
98-68
100-00
Returns of weekly expenditure on food, obtained for the purposes of this
enquiry from 156 typical working-class families in Chemnitz, showed an average
weekly consumption of meat per head of slightly less than 15 ounces a week,
or at the rate of about 49 lbs. a year. Of this total 33 per cent, was beef,
27 per cent, was pork and bacon, and 25 per cent, was sausage, it can
hardly be doubted that a considerable proportion of horse-flesh is comprised
under the heading oí sausage, for, although close upon 1,000 horses are
slaughtered for consumption in the course of the year in Chemnitz (the number
in 1905 was 982) and the annual per capita consumption of horse-flesh in the
town is 2| lbs., the class of meat is not separately distinguished in the family
food returns obtained for this investigation. Among the wares exhibited for
sale in all the horse-flesh shops in Chemnitz (of which there are eight), sausages
composed entirely of this kind of meat occupy a prominent place. The prices
charged at all thèse shops are the same and range from 45 to 60 pfennige the
i kilo or 5d. to 6±d. per English pound, the latter being the price paid for the
best kind of horse sausage (as compared with S^d. to 11 d. usually paid for
sausages of beef, pork, &c., such as are most in favour among the working
class).
Chemnitz, like other German cities, has its or public meat stall
for the retail sale of inferior meat at low prices, ihe inferiority may arise from
various causes, which are determined at the time the carcase is inspected by
public veterinary officers charged with that duty. In the case of beef and
Pork the meat is most frequently that of animals from which certain organs
or parts found to be affected by tuberculosis, have been removed. Sometimes
the animal has not been specifically diseased, but the flesh has been found
(in the case of pigs) to have a disagreeable odour. lo ensure absolute
safety portions of the meat have sometimes to be boiled before being sold
and the resulting liquor or gravy is supplied to the purchaser along with
29088 T 2
