Manila's local meat supply

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Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title: Manila's local meat supply
Language: English
Source: The American Chamber of Commerce Journal Volume XVIII (Issue No. 6) June 1938
Year: 1938
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Fulltext: June, 1938 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 11 Manila’s Local Meat Supply Science and invention have pool-, ed their efforts during more than ten years in the Philippines, to bet ter Manila’s local meat supply. The invention part of this is the elec tric refrigerator, many stalls in the city markets have provided re frigerators for keeping and dis playing their meat. The old days are quite gone, now the fresh clean meat is well exhibited and much as it should be. The science part is a longei' more discursive story. It runs from the College of Agriculture through many of the public schools to hundreds of families as far north as llokos, as far south as Tayabas and Batangas, raising porkers for Manila. Science in cattle raising leaves Luzon and extends all ovei’ the archipelago. It is not limited to breeding, either, but grasses are introduced and put under experi mentation in hope of seeding pasturage that will, add weight and fat to grazing steers. The quest is only measurably successful, but the point where good beef is produced has been reached. Then too, science is in charge at the slaughterhouse on calle Azcarraga. Every carcass is inspected, and the City sends the rejected ones to its crematory to be de stroyed. They are not even sold to soapers, as they once were, the City will not take the risk that turning them over to a contractor involves. Bad meat is burned up, that’s all there is to it, and the owner of it loses all, es caping only the payment of the killing fee. But the slaughterhouse, at time of writing (May 18) is in a bad way. It should be painted. Its copings should all be repaired, also its floor of granite blocks and its drains. The masonry at the bases of the structural beams should be repaired and made to standard size. The offices should be repaired and painted. Sanitary provisions should be provided for personnel. Neighbor ing streets should be asphalted, and an ajustable chute should be provided for the unloading of hogs from trucks. In our knowledge extending over 20 years the slaughter house has never been more run-down than it is today. This reflects on others than on Superintendent Manuel A. Aguila, who keeps the place clean and, as nearly as may be, odorless. But the physical condition of the plant is disgraceful, an imposition on all employees concerned with it and on livestock men who have to patronize it. Manila’s annual consumption of local meat varies little from year to year. It was 12,248,459 kilos in 1935, 12,401,625 kilos in 1936, and 12,407,467 kilos last year— rather a remarkable comparison that shows a prevalence of hard times among the city’s masses because the po pulation is growing very materially. This deduction can’t be conclusive however until checked with the con sumption of fish, fresh and tinned and salted, since fish is the public’s favorite meat. The average year’s kill at the slaughterhouse is 183,462 animals: 138,957 hogs, 31,865 cattle, and 12,640 carabaos whose meat is darker, coarser, and stronger than beef. The total average dressed weight of all these animals is 11,772,160 kilos. Carabaos dress an average of 142.66 kilos, cattle 116 kilos, hogs 43.33 kilos. Varia(Please turn to page 13) Halfway In. (Continued from page 10) celled release of more than 20 millions of public works, funds while the argument goes ceaselessly and remorse lessly on, behind curtains. There are two schools, of course. One says, nurse ’em along; the other, burn ’em with experience—every tub on its own bottom. The country is so remarkably productive that over long pe riods it makes small difference which view prevails. SPRING STEEL The Commonwealth’s economy rests on spring steel. It can never be long depressed, since it springs back to the common norm. Nor can it be much expanded, for long, since from this extreme too it inevitably recoils. Since no one has ever taken the pains to describe this basic phenomenon of Philippine life, now is a good time for it. It is the peasants, cotters and cottagers, cotters if tenants, cottagers if independent on their own hold ings. They are the bulk of the people, proud of their honest traditions, living by customs of their own and • shunning all else with prudent instinct. All they reach out for is education. When they can sell their surplus, it is well; when they can’t make shift to do this, they still live. Always they live by the traditional standard. With more wealth they add something to their clothes, travel about a bit, etc., but their house and food remain what they were. They are consistently busy, without over working themselves, and they are never extravagant. This describes with considerable accuracy fifteen million Filipinos, if not more, and perhaps it should be added that the rule of elder authority prevails. This explains why extreme booms and depressions are absent from the country’s economic history. They have no place in the people’s economy. While the people adhere to these virtues ways, fear not. Nothing drastic will happen. —W. R. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE' JOURNAL June, 1938 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 13 and bring feed for them from California, to go with what is best here, supply clubs, hotels, apartments and such special cus tomers large fresh eggs of which the most squeamish patrons could not complain. It is rapid transportation that enables this to happen in the tropics. The farms have refrigerators where the eggs are chilled as soon as they arc gathered, and they reach you in dozen lot cartons proudly bearing the farm name. Sewing Machine. . . (Continued from page 8) American period began. The character credit that now underlies nearly all its transactions, as this pa|x?r has described, has been worked out through forty years of prosperous experience. There is no gamble in it, either—the company knows it will be paid: the only discount for cash in lieu of 1’5 payments a month is 20'4. These remarks apply to one of the largest businesses in the commonwealth, carried on with its poorest citizens. Manila’s Local. . . (Continued from page 11) tions year to year in these average weights are negligible. Besides these animals (carabaos, cattle, and hogs) a few sheep and goats are slaughtered, and some 12,000 suckling pigs whose fate is to be roasted on the spit either at the markets or for home parties, and picnics, never complete if roast suckling pig is absent, the Islands’ lechov, probably as productive of chronic and acute gastric maladies as any single factor in the pop ular diet. No one should ever dare eat reddish pork, though suckling pig it may be, a caution that will be wasted on Fili pinos until their health officers and scien tists associate the practice with their high mortality rate. Even at the markets where the charcoal fires emit intense even heat, suckling pig is seldom roasted well. But it is eagerly devoured just the same. Gastric maladies, especially of children, come on in June and July and are commonly blamed to the rains where it might be more worth while to trace them to their more logical source, May’s long festivals and roast suck ling pig. NO PIECES-OF-EIGHT? When American forces under Major Gen eral Wesley Merritt occupied Manila Aug ust 13, 1898, Jose Luis Maury was the Islands’ general treasurer from whom on August 24 the funds at the treasury were seized. Not taken up as revenue, these funds were held for whatever disposition Congress should wish to make of them. In all this there can be little present in terest, but the physical character of some of the items listed is amusing. Four-peso gold pieces summed $4,200. Spanish-Filipino and Mexican silver coins summed $129,632.21. There were 162 sacks of copper coins said to contain $50 each. These were supplemented by 1,928 boxes of like coins said to contain $150 each. Among items at the mint, receipted for to the director, Jose Pereyra y Pereyra, were 30 sacks of Mexican dollars each con taining $1,000, and 29 sacks of half-pesos Gold bars and small pieces of gold summed S3 806 08. About $4,000 in three items, bagged, were taken over under receipt at the Avuntamiento, and almost $25,000 at the internal revenue office, while the civil gov ernor, Jose Bueren, .Tuan de Mer, Conde de Gra. and Eugemo Caurino, official pay master at the governor’s office, turned over $956.02 in fondos locales. Banknotes were not. then in popular cir culation. They were of the Banco-EsnanolFilipino (now the Bank of t.he Philinnine Islands), then the sole bank of issue. Silver was the popular currency, and sacks a common means of carrying it about. Bank notes at the treasury summed less than $200,000; there were also two checks, sum ming just over $170,000. The tradition that a quantity of quick silver was found at the mint is apocryphal. There is no record of it, and since the smallest items of what really was found are carefully listed, it simply was not there. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OE COMMERCE JOURNAL June, 1938 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 13 and bring feed for them from California, to go with what is best here, supply clubs, hotels, apartments and such special cus tomers large fresh eggs of which the most squeamish patrons could not complain. It is rapid transportation that enables this to happen in the tropics. The farms have refrigerators where the eggs are chilled as soon as they arc gathered, and they reach you in dozen lot cartons proudly bearing the farm name. Sewing Machine. . . (Continued from page 8) American period began. The character credit that now underlies nearly all its transactions, as this pa|x?r has described, has been worked out through forty years of prosperous experience. There is no gamble in it, either—the company knows it will be paid: the only discount for cash in lieu of 1’5 payments a month is 20'4. These remarks apply to one of the largest businesses in the commonwealth, carried on with its poorest citizens. Manila’s Local. . . (Continued from page 11) tions year to year in these average weights are negligible. Besides these animals (carabaos, cattle, and hogs) a few sheep and goats are slaughtered, and some 12,000 suckling pigs whose fate is to be roasted on the spit either at the markets or for home parties, and picnics, never complete if roast suckling pig is absent, the Islands’ lechov, probably as productive of chronic and acute gastric maladies as any single factor in the pop ular diet. No one should ever dare eat reddish pork, though suckling pig it may be, a caution that will be wasted on Fili pinos until their health officers and scien tists associate the practice with their high mortality rate. Even at the markets where the charcoal fires emit intense even heat, suckling pig is seldom roasted well. But it is eagerly devoured just the same. Gastric maladies, especially of children, come on in June and July and are commonly blamed to the rains where it might be more worth while to trace them to their more logical source, May’s long festivals and roast suck ling pig. NO PIECES-OF-EIGHT? When American forces under Major Gen eral Wesley Merritt occupied Manila Aug ust 13, 1898, Jose Luis Maury was the Islands’ general treasurer from whom on August 24 the funds at the treasury were seized. Not taken up as revenue, these funds were held for whatever disposition Congress should wish to make of them. In all this there can be little present in terest, but the physical character of some of the items listed is amusing. Four-peso gold pieces summed $4,200. Spanish-Filipino and Mexican silver coins summed $129,632.21. There were 162 sacks of copper coins said to contain $50 each. These were supplemented by 1,928 boxes of like coins said to contain $150 each. Among items at the mint, receipted for to the director, Jose Pereyra y Pereyra, were 30 sacks of Mexican dollars each con taining $1,000, and 29 sacks of half-pesos Gold bars and small pieces of gold summed S3 806 08. About $4,000 in three items, bagged, were taken over under receipt at the Avuntamiento, and almost $25,000 at the internal revenue office, while the civil gov ernor, Jose Bueren, .Tuan de Mer, Conde de Gra. and Eugemo Caurino, official pay master at the governor’s office, turned over $956.02 in fondos locales. Banknotes were not. then in popular cir culation. They were of the Banco-EsnanolFilipino (now the Bank of t.he Philinnine Islands), then the sole bank of issue. Silver was the popular currency, and sacks a common means of carrying it about. Bank notes at the treasury summed less than $200,000; there were also two checks, sum ming just over $170,000. The tradition that a quantity of quick silver was found at the mint is apocryphal. There is no record of it, and since the smallest items of what really was found are carefully listed, it simply was not there. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OE COMMERCE JOURNAL