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nicipal governments have authority, by charter, to establish and regulate all markets for the sale of fresh provisions and perishable produce within their respective limits. In this city the government has no authority, except as a Board of Health, over any market outside of the one which it owns. The growth of the city, and the limited accommodations of Faneuil Hall Market, have led to the establishment of a large number of private market-houses, which are managed solely in the interests of the proprietors. If more money can be made by selling a poor article than by selling a good one, a feeling of regard for the public health seldom restrains the dealer from making the most money. This want of principle on the part of a large number of persons who are engaged in supplying food to the citizens is fully shown in the evidence presented to the Committee, a carefully prepared abstract of which is appended to this report.

As several points were covered by their inquiry, the Committee will consider them under the following heads, namely: 1. Transportation of live animals intended for the Boston markets.

2. The management of the slaughter-houses in the vicinity of Boston.

3. The character of the markets in Boston, and the quality of the meats furnished to the citizens.

It would be well, perhaps, to state here the course which the Committee pursued in their investigations. In beginning, a list was prepared, by persons familiar with the subject, of those who were the best qualified to give such practical information as would be of value. A certain number of persons on this list were then summoned to appear before the Committee at a specified time. Each witness was sworn and examined apart from the others. In this way they were led to testify much more freely than they would otherwise have done.

TRANSPORTATION.

Few are aware of the immense quantity of fresh provisions required to supply the markets in Boston and the surrounding cities and towns. Within a circuit of twenty miles from the State House there is a population of over 650,000, supplied largely with meats brought from a distance of five hundred to twenty-five hundred miles. The transportation of the live stock for such great distances is a matter of the first importance to the consumers; but it is only very recently that public attention has been directed to the manner in which the business is carried on.

The cattle supplied to the Boston market are mainly from the Western States and from Texas. Those from Texas are shipped to New Orleans, from thence by boats up the Mississippi to Cairo, and thence by rail to Tolono, Ill.; or they are driven in herds from the interior of Texas to Red River, and transported thence by boats and cars to Illinois. By either route the treatment of the animals is shocking. Here is a statement of what was witnessed by a Boston merchant,* within three months:

"On the steamer from Indianola to New Orleans there were about a hundred cattle. Before shipment, they were kept in a pen near the landing at Indianola about twenty-four hours, without food or water. They were taken on board Monday noon, and put under the deck, where the ventilation was very poor. They reached New Orleans the next Friday noon, having had no food or water since the previous Sunday noonfive days. The captain told me that it was the uniform custom to carry them from Indianola to New Orleans without food or water, and that on the previous trip, out of a hundred and fifty cattle shipped, about forty died on the passage."

* Mr. H. B. Braman.

George T. Angell, Esq.,* President of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, says:

"A gentleman at Chicago, familiar with the Texas cattle trade, assured me last winter that cattle going down the Red River and up the Mississippi to Cairo were a week or more on the way, and generally without much food or water; that usually five or six dead were thrown over every morning, and he had known forty to fifty thrown over at one time. And the same cruelty is inflicted upon other animals. Of course many animals arriving at Chicago are taken out dead. have seen about forty dead animals taken from the cars, lying in the stock yards there, in one pile. At Chicago the animals are driven, or, if unable to walk, taken from the car, and fed, watered, and rested a few hours. They are then re-loaded for the East."

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The

The cars in which these cattle are shipped are from twentyfive to twenty-eight feet in length. The average number of cattle put into this space is seventeen. The cars for hogs and sheep have two floors, or what is called a double-deck. average number to each car is two hundred.† The cattle shipped at Chicago are fed only at Buffalo and Albany. Between these places they are without food and water from eighteen to twenty-two hours.

The Massachusetts Railroad Commissioners, in their last report, state that, "As at present conducted on the railroads of the United States, it is no abuse of language to call the whole system of cattle transportation an outrage on the first principles of humanity. Between the prairies of Kansas and of Missouri, and the cities of New York and Boston, there are now three usual places of rest and refreshment for cattle, Chicago, Buffalo, and Albany. The accommodations

* The Committee are indebted to Mr. Angell for several valuable documents relating to the transportation of animals and the management of slaughter-houses. † Mr. John P. Squire, who brings over 100,000 live hogs from Chicago annually, stated in his evidence (appendix p. 30) that he put only from 80 to 110 in each car, and had them taken off at Toledo, Buffalo, and Albany.

afforded at these places are very ample, and the cattle are supplied with food and water, and opportunity for rest. Their sufferings in transit between these places are, however, indescribable, as every traveller knows who has ever, on some hot summer day, glanced at a cattle-train as it stood on a railroad siding. The animals are taken directly from the prairie, which is the earthly paradise of all dumb creatures, and are crowded as close as they can stand into cars, which are then slowly hauled through, from one to three days, to some point of destination. These.trains yield the road to most others and pass hours on sidings; the animals are without any food or water; they are jolted off their legs, and then goaded till they struggle up, for they cannot be permitted to lie down. They thus arrive at their destination trampled upon, torn by each others' horns, bruised and bleeding; having, in fact, suffered all that animals can suffer and live. Under the most favorable circumstances, they leave the train panting, fevered, and unfit to kill; under the least favorable, a regular percentage of dead animals is hauled out of the cars. The average shrinkage between Chicago and Boston is estimated at ten to fifteen per cent., and this does not include loss through deterioration in the quality of the meat, or the fact that, by goring and scratching, the hides are injured for purposes of tanning to an extent heretofore unknown. This board has nothing to do with the sanitary considerations involved in the matter; the simple question to be discussed here is the practical one: What can be done in the premises? No real and radical reform can be anticipated, until some line of roads shall demonstrate the fact that animal food, delivered on the hoof, and in good order, is worth materially more in the market than the same commodity, poisoned and reduced in quantity, in course of transportation; that, in fact, humanity is the better economy. A law was passed in 1869 (Acts, chap. 344), regulating this subject within this Commonwealth, and the officers of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani

mals inform the commissioners that this law has been productive of most beneficial results. State legislation cannot go to the root of the abuse, which lies in the wholly unregulated transportation of cattle through the country at large.

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The question, in fact, is not a State question; it is, on the contrary, one directly affecting commerce between the States,' and can only be dealt with by the national govern

ment.

At present, food tainted in the course of transportation is brought into Massachusetts, and endangers the health of the people. Massachusetts can affect that transportation only through her representatives in Congress. In view, therefore, of the importance of this question in every point of view, whether of humanity, of economy, or of health, the commissioners would recommend that the Legislature cause a memorial on the subject to be prepared for immediate submission to Congress, and that it be forwarded to that body, with the usual instructions to our senators and representatives in regard to it."

The Cattle Commissioners of New York, in their report to the Legislature of that State, in 1869, make the following

statements:

"There is a class of drovers and dealers, trading chiefly in the inferior and cheaper qualities of cattle, who pay little regard to the impulses of humanity, and run their cattle through to market, from their distant western shipping points, on the cars, in the most cruel and barbarous way, for three, five, or even more, days and nights together, as the case may be, with little if any food, or water, or rest on the route. In such cases the poor, suffering animals become jaded with fatigue, almost famished with hunger and thirst, and lose much flesh. In frequent instances they become diseased; or, falling down in the cars and trampled on by others, arrive in the most pitiable condition of bruises, and sometimes with broken limbs, and in an utterly disordered condition. Cattle appar