Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1875 — How They Dispose of Dead Horses in France. [ARTICLE]

How They Dispose of Dead Horses in France.

At Montfaucon they put a dead horse through such a process as makes every part of it valuable. A few days since I paid the noted place a visit, and, with the assistance of a courteous foreman, learned considerable of the inner workings of the establishment? The company running the concern have agents in every village, town and city, whose business it is to buy up all the old horses turned out as no longer fit to work. These are shipped or driven to Montfaucon and then the process commences. When the animal has been killed it is cut up and the choice portions of the flesh are eaten up by the work people of the establishment, and by those who haunt the neighborhood, many of whom are said to be Communists of a very desperate character. The rest of the carcass is sold for the feeding of dogs, cats, pigs and poultry, a portion being also devoted to purposes of manure. The flesh thus disposed of weighs on an average about 350 pounds and sells for from $7.50 to $lO. The skin brings from the tanner about $'2.50. The hoofs are disposed of to a manufacturer of sal ammoniac or similar preparation, or of Parisian blue, or to a comb or toy-maker. The old shoes and nails are worth six cents. The hair of the mane and tail sells for three cents. The tendons are disposed of, either fresh or dried, to glue-makers. The bones are bought by the turners, cutlers, fan-makers and thfe makers of ivory black and sal ammoniac. Of bones the average weight is ninety pounds and the amount realized about sixty cents. The intestines are worth five cents. The blood is most serviceable. The chief purchasers are the sugar-refiners, who use it in manufacturing sugar. The blood is also bought up by the fatteners of poultry, pigeons and turkeys; then again it is sold for manure. When required for manure it is dried, twenty pounds of dried blood, which is the average, being worth forty-five cents. The fat is in demand for making soap, and, when very fine, for “bear’s grease;” also for the grease applied to harness and to shoe-leathenr This fat, when consumed in lamps, gives out more heat than oil, and is therefore preferred by the makers of glass toys, and by enamelers and polishers. One horse has been known to yield sixty pounds of fat, but this was an extreme case. The fat of a horse in fair condition is twelve pounds, but so many lean and sorry jades are taken in that eight pounds may be taken as the average, and at a value of ten cents per pound. Nor does the list end here. Sometimes there is considerable putrid flesh about a dead animal, and how to utilize this matter bothered the French scientists for some time. Finally the problem was solved, and now the putrid flesh is made to teem with life, and to produce food for other living creatures. A pile of pieces of flesh, several inches in height, layer upon layer is arranged, after which it is covered over lightly with hay or straw. In a few hours thousands upon thousands of flies deposit their eggs in this attractive matter, and thus maggots are bred. These are fed to pheasants, and in a smaller degree to domestic fowls. They are also used to fatten sardines. These maggots give, or are supposed to give a game flavor to poultry, and a very high flavor to pheasants. Since I heard the foreman’s story I have made numerous inquires to learn if it was a true one. Thus far I have met with few who believe it, and yet I do not see why Monsieur the foreman should have lied about “a little thing like that.” The maggots thus produced, so I was further informed, are worth thirty-six cents. “ What is the average amount realized on a dead horse?” was my next question. “From sixty to eighty francs” was his immediate answer. Then, after a pause, he informed me of another way they had of making the French horse available. During the early autumn months the rats appear about the premises in tremendous numbers. They would soon overrun the establishment but for a plan long since adopted, and which not only rids the company of th# pests, but returns an income as well. When Montfaucon swarms with rats the carcass of a horse is placed in a room into which the rodents gain access through openings in the floor contrived for the purpose. At night the rats, lured by their keenness of scent, enter the room through these artificial rat-holes by thousands. While they are in the midst of their feast these openings are closed and they are prisoners. Then the slaughter commences. As high as 18,000 have been killed in five weeks in one room. The dead rats are skinned and the skins are sold to Paris furriers for from one to four francs each. The/ are then made up into “four-button kids” and shipped to tlie United States. “ There is among a good many Parisians an idea,” said he. “ that we sell the tongues, kidneys and hearts of horses to the butchers. This is not true.” He then went on to show the absurdity of such a story, besides arguing at some length that the substitution of the equine for the-bovine heart is not attempted, even if it were possible, which he denied. I inclined to the opinion, that the Parisians are right and the foreman wrong in his conclusions. Indeed, I am assured on good authority that the horse’s tongue is used as a substitute for die dried deer’s, a somewhat savory dish, eaten at breakfast time by the bluebloods of the St. Germain quarter. And as for the “beefsteaks” furnished at my restaurant—well; although I used to order one occasionally, I never did think it was a beefsteak. — Paris Cor. N. Y. Times. —Wonderful metamorphosis: To see a sleepy man turn into a bed.