Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1880 — Mutton as Food. [ARTICLE]

Mutton as Food.

' Col. F. D. Curtis thus writes on the desirability of mutton. Thirty yean ago but few fat sheep went into the markets. Now more than a million are required annually to supply tbe demands of New York city alone. The great staple meat food of the cities is beef, while in the country districts it is the flesh of swine. Farmers cannot keep whole carcasses of beef on band, and if preserved in salt, as they do their pork, it Boon gets hard and unpalatable. A carcase of mutton being so much «maller, even in hot weather a considerable portion of it can be used fresh and the balance pickled in salt Mutton will keep longer in a fresh state than any other meat, and when corned is equally nutritious with beef, and far more wholesome than pig meat in any form. For persons of sedentary habits, and at all afflicted with weak digestion, a great deal more healthy than beef or pork. Many people who cannot digest either of tbe Utter without distress, can eat mutton and experience no unpleasantness whatever. It is the cleanest and purest meat food in the whole animal kingdom, as a sheep will starve before it will eat any thing dirty or tainted. Mutton wastes less in the pot than beef. The bones are lighter and finer in proportion to the amount of meat in wellfed sheep,and this alone ia an important item to those who have to buy. The less shrinkage in cooking is a considerable percentage in favor of mutton. The great reason why more mutton so not eaten is liecause of its poor quality, which is the result of no general system practised in the production of this important staple.