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APPENDIX.

ABSTRACT OF EVIDENCE GIVEN BEFORE THE JOINT SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE CITY COUNCIL IN REGARD TO THE SALE OF DISEASED MEAT IN THE CITY OF BOSTON.

HEARING MAY 5, 1871.

O. W. MEAD, 35 North Market street. In commission business. Sell all kinds of produce and meats. Have consignments from all parts of country. We are open to receive produce from any one who will send it. We receive it without regard to quality—but if it isn't good for anything we can't get anything for it. North, Meriam & Co. have bought damaged poultry of me to try up for grease. Don't know what they did with it. We receive calves, and sell them without regard to age. Our commission on calves is thirty cents a piece, without regard to size. We receive the calves from Maine and Massachusetts. Suppose some of the calves we receive are not more than a week or fortnight old. Lawrence and Frost, of Maine, send some such calves. We have calves from them every week. They didn't send any small calves this week. We sell the small calves to retailers. They don't go into Quincy market, none but the best goes there. They keep a poorer quality in Blackstone market. The small calves are sold at onethird the price of good veal. Consider it wholesome to eat veal a week old. The Irish prefer it. I have eaten it probably; but I shouldn't like to if I knew it. A calf that is bled will keep better than one that is not.

Don't know of any diseased meat coming into the market. Haven't seen any such meat. Think I should know the meat of an animal that died of disease.

All the commission houses sell the calves sent to them- good, bad, and indifferent. We don't know what the bad ones are used for.

Don't know Gus. Weitze. Don't know what class of meat is sold from wagons around the market. If we got "stuck" on a lot of meat, we should naturally go to Blackstone market to get rid of it. If meat gets putrid, or hurt, we sell it to the fat boiling establishment. We don't sell such meat to the Blackstone market, — but only an inferior quality.

We receive on an average a hundred calves a week-take it the year round. Shouldn't think five per cent of the number was less than four weeks old. There never were so few young calves in the market as this year.

We sell to Bologna sausage establishments. They buy all kinds of meats of an inferior quality.

For calves one week old they have to pay in the country about $3; for those four or five weeks old they pay all the way from $15 to $20.

LYMAN A. BELKNAP, 12 Clinton street. Wholesale commission business; consignments made by parties in the country. Most of our fresh meats come from Worcester county. We receive all kinds of meat. Presume we receive the best line of meats of any house. Of course we receive some meats that are not right. For instance, we receive a lot of hogs from the West, and they appear all right; but there may be a measly one in the lot. We don't sell it if we know it. There may be some calves not more than ten days old. They are sold to all parties. Some of the best people get it sometimes. Don't know of any one connected with the markets who receives diseased, corrupted, or unwholesome meats. Blackstone market is not a first-class market for meats. They buy a cheaper class of meats than other markets. Some of the carts that go round sell a cheap quality.

The sausage manufactories buy the best of a cheap kind of meats. We have sold meats that got black - didn't look very well — to H. Weitze, a German, in Cambridge, for Bologna sausages; the meat wasn't diseased or corrupted — but a little old.

It don't pay to try to sell inferior meat in Faneuil Hall market. It would be known and a man would lose his business. In Blackstone market, a man couldn't live unless he sold inferior meat.

Think some calves five days old would be wholesome. Shouldn't want to eat the meat myself. It all depends on the way the calf is fed. A few calves come from Chicago in the winter.

More than three years ago we notified all our shippers not to send us any more small calves. We got 30 cents commission on small calves that cost only $1.50 or $2.00; and we only get thirty cents commission on calves that cost us $15.00 a piece.

NORTON E. HOLLIS, 51 North Market street. Commission business. Mostly meats. Consignments are made by parties in the country. We know most of them. The meats are of all qualities. Don't know that we ever had any diseased meat. When we have an inferior quality of meat we sell it for what it will bring. When small calves are consigned we sell them for what they will bring, to whoever comes along. The commission is just the same on a large calf as a small one. I would eat any piece of veal that I ever sold. There is no poison in veal two weeks old. We probably receive more than a hundred calves

eighty in a car load.

a week. Have live calves consigned to us sometimes. We get about After the ox difficulty, we wrote to all our shippers not to send any more small veals; they wouldn't sell for enough to pay for the sending. A teamster (Jos. Whitten) brought a load of calves from the Lowell depot, consigned to us, last week. The load was seized. The lot came from Montpelier, I think, and Bailey & Newcomb were the consignors. Have notified them that the calves were seized and told them not to send any more small veals. Never received any invoice of the lot. When the team drove up to my store, Mr. Dodge (Deputy Supt. of markets) was there, and I told him I would not sell a single one for a thousand dollars. I told Charley North (of North, Meriam & Co.) that I would give them to him for his hogs. Didn't think at that time that North made sausages. The driver put them into North's wagon, and they were seized from his wagon.

Those were "small veals." Knew there was a law against selling them. Think every commission house in Boston has more or less of just such veal. Should say that these veals that were seized were not four weeks old. Never objected to receiving small veals before this difficulty at Brighton. Other commission houses do not. Nineteen calves out of twenty sent to the market are less than four weeks old. The calves seized were what are called "milkers." I suspected they were milkers when I saw the officer and saw where they came from. Could tell where they came from by the manner in which they were dressed. Have sold small veals to Weitze, at Cambridge, to make into Bolognas. Have sold him eight or ten at a time. Bohn has bought them for Bolognas. I don't sell much meat to go into Blackstone market. Have sold some milkers to go into that market. Have sold meats to Central market a good class of meats.

Some of the men who go round with carts buy the milkers one or two at a time. Ward-the bone-factory man - pays one-half a centa pound. Any man who knows anything about meats can tell small veals. It is no excuse for a man to plead ignorance.

Meat that gets tainted we sell or give away. Sometimes we send meat back to the butchers.

Don't know the Bailey who sent the calves to me. He buys them up in the country, I suppose. He makes some consignments to S. J. Hyde, I think. The teamster who brought the calves to me said there were a hundred just such calves on a wagon within a stone's throw. Most good veal comes by express the poorer qualities as freight.