regular American steamer service between the United States and the principal South American ports; to establish a banking system, with branches at Para, Rio de Janeiro, Blumenau, Porto Alegre, and Buenos Ayres; to take a leading part in the construction of railroads necessary to develop the resources of the southern States of Brazil. The men who go there in the interest of American trade ought to be commercially and socially well trained, and not without the necessary linguistic attainments. The incomprehensible lack of initiative on the part of our merchants and financiers regarding the southern Brazilian trade is illustrated by the fact that at most of the places in the interior of Parana, Santa Catharina, and Rio Grande do Sul visited by me there had never been an American before, and in the latter State we are represented only by the German importing firm of Thomsen & Co.-whose managing partner is Mr. E. H. Müller, of New York, a German American-a few missionaries, and one dentist. It is extremely difficult to obtain statistical data anywhere in Brazil, very little attention being paid officially to that part of governmental science. Most of the literature descriptive of southern Brazil is either obsolete or compiled by people who make a hurried trip along the seaport towns, relying principally on hearsay evidence and newspaper extracts. My visit was extended not only to the coast of the south of Brazil, but to all inland towns and colonies of interest accessible by boat, horseback, or by means of those little springless vehicles drawn by four horses or mules which are so characteristic of overland traveling in South America. Detailed information obtained during this trip will be sent later. EUGENE SEEGER, RIO DE JANEIRO, July, 1899. Consul-General. THE TASAJO, OR DRIED-BEEF, INDUSTRY IN THE RIVER PLATA COUNTRIES. Although the production of tasajo has been an industry of long standing in the Argentine Republic and the Republic of Uruguay, little seems to have been heretofore published on the subject. Even before these countries had acquired their independence, and while still under Spanish viceroyal government, the preparation of dried beef was well known in the River Plata. The Spanish colonists applied a system of preserving beef by removing the fat and drying it by the simple means of exposing it to the sun and air. This product was termed “charque," and is well known in the Argentine Republic, Chile, Peru, and on the western coast of Colombia. It is also called "carne dulce," being very slightly salted, to distinguish it from the "tasajo del país," which receives a stronger saline treatment. The tasajo, of which this report will specially treat, may indeed be said to owe its origin to "charque," being hardly more than an improved class of the same, capable of longer preservation, and hence possessing a greater commercial value. A similar product known as "cecina," a term used in Spain for a species of preserved beef, was also manufactured in the past and at a very early date exported to that country. The increase of stock raising on the lands adjacent to Buenos Ayres caused, as far back as 1602, the inhabitants of that city to solicit of and obtain from Philip III of Spain the permission to export "cecina" to Spain, and it is interesting to note that a first shipment of this product was made in 1603 in the vessel Nuestra Señora de la Concepción. In the same year, there followed five other shipments; in 1604, six; and in 1605, five. Notwithstanding such shipments having been made and it having been related by le sieur D'Acarete* that a salting establishment ("saladero") existed in Salta in 1658, the production of tasajo and its kindred products could hardly be considered an industry of the country before the beginning of this century. This view is borne. out by passages contained in a “memoria," or report, by Viceroy Vertiz, published at the close of the last century, wherein he recommends the salting of beef as a means of utilizing it and as a progressive step in the development of the pastoral interests of the country. At the beginning of this century, however, the making of tasajo was unquestionably developing into an industry. A proof of this was the resolution adopted in 1812 by the junta composed of Gen. Don Juan Martín de Pueyrredon, Don Feliciano Antonio Chiclana, and Don Bernardino Rivadavia, that— For the purpose of establishing saladeros as institutions of primary importance to the country, salted meats, tasajo, tongues, etc., and similar products should be declared free of export duty. The result of this law was the killing of cattle in such considerable numbers as to awaken apprehension of producing a scarcity of cattle in the country, so that in 1817 Director Pueyrredon issued an order strictly prohibiting the sale of cows to saladeros. From then to the present time, the development of the saladero industries in the Argentine Republic and the Republic of Uruguay * Recuerdos de Viaje. has more or less kept pace with the expanding pastoral industry of these countries. The census of May 10, 1895, the last that has been made in the Argentine Republic, fixes the number of cattle in that country at 21,701,526 head, of which 14,197,159 were native or criollo, 4,678,348 mestizos, 72,216 pure-bred stock, 1,800,799 milch cows of all kinds, and 953,004 oxen for labor. The total number is claimed not to have increased since then, but I have not been able to secure authoritative data on this point. The animals used for the production of tasajo are, chiefly of the "criollo," or native, breed, though some mestizo, or mixed, breeds. produced by the crossing chiefly with the Hereford or Durham stocks are also used. The usual age for killing is from 3 to 4 years. Steers and cows are indiscriminately killed, though the tasajo from the cow is alleged to be somewhat finer. The usual weight of the animals killed ranges from 750 to 950 pounds. Apart from the influence upon the price which the supply of and demand for cattle must always necessarily have, the weight and quality of the animal naturally play an important part in determining the price of tasajo cattle. In the last killing season, the current prices were from $9 to $15 gold per head, and these prices have more or less prevailed for the past five or six years, while prior to that period it is claimed that they were somewhat lower. The price of Uruguayan cattle is usually 10 to 15 per cent higher than for Argentine, which difference is. due to the superiority claimed for Uruguayan over Argentine cattle. The average estimate of the yield of each animal is as follows: Main product (tasajo)................................ By-products: Hide........ Tallow... Pounds. 160 to 180 60 to 70 70 to 80 Minor products (tongues, bones, horns, blood, and entrails) are estimated at a value of from 50 to 75 cents gold per head of cattle. The price of tasajo ranges from $6 to $6.50 gold per 105 pounds, not including packing charges. A consignment recently shipped. from this port for Cuba via New York, by the steamship Newlyn, was contracted for at $12.60 plus 50 cents packing charge, making the total price $13.10 per 200 pounds. The freight charges to Cuba at the present moment are excessively high, being 492s., or $10.88 gold, per ton of 2,030 pounds. The normal freight rates to Cuba range between 36s. and 40s. ($8.76 and $9.73) per ton, including transshipment, which is done on account of vessel. The prices of hides range from $9 to $10 per 105 pounds. Dry hides are dearer than salted ones. In the treating, dry hides lose on the average 18 per cent in weight. In 1898, 23,173 tons of dry hides and 29,367 tons of salted hides were exported from the Argentine Republic at a valuation of $6,887,596 and $5,171,440, respectively, the export duty being 4 per cent. The price of tallow averages $4.50 to $5 per 105 pounds. It is exported as "sebo" and "grasa derretida" (melted tallow or suet) in not inconsiderable quantities to Belgium, Brazil, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, and Great Britain. The total exports of this article amounted in 1895 to 40,588 tons and in 1896 to 34,143 tons, valued at $3,807,751 and $3,179,326 gold, respectively. Tongues sell on the average for $20 gold per hundred; although they constitute an important article of consumption in the Argentine Republic, they are also exported both salted and canned. The chief foreign destinations for salted tongues were, in 1895, Brazil, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and France; but in the year following that date a remarkable falling off in the export of this article occurred, and it has not since revived. In canned or preserved tongues a considerable export trade continues, amounting in 1895 to 1,574,568 pounds and in 1896 to 1,279,576 pounds, valued at $157,455 and $127,955, respectively. Frozen tongues are now also being exported. Horn, bones, bone ash, dried blood, and sausage casings, although articles of export, are too inconsiderable in amount to require any detailed reference here. The export duty on horns, bones, and bone ash is 4 per cent. The method of making tasajo is simple, the chief agents in producing it being sun, salt, and air. The animals are taken from the "potrero," where they have been collected together from the camp the day before, and are driven from twenty to twenty-five at a time into a small inclosure. Overlooking this inclosure is a small platform upon which a peon is standing, who lassoes the animal. The other end of the rope passes through an aperture of the inclosure and is hitched to two or more horses ridden by young peons, who draw the animal forward towards the exit of the inclosure, where another peon awaits it, who gives it the death blow with the "facón," or knife, on the back of the neck, severing the spinal cord. The animal drops. on a truck platform and is then removed to the place for cutting open. Here it is quickly skinned and disemboweled by peons, and the whole flesh most dexterously removed with the knife from the skeleton of the animal in a remarkably brief space of time. The whole carcass yields six pieces for tasajo, namely, the four round quarters and the two sides, or "mantas." The pieces vary in thickness from 12 to 21⁄2 inches. The prin ciple of cutting the flesh off of the animal for tasajo is to cut with the grain. These pieces are then laid out for two or three hours under shelter to cool, when they are immersed in highly salted water from five to ten minutes. On the following or second day they are spread out and salted on the lean side, the salt being well rubbed in. On the third day, the other, or the side where the most fat prevails, is salted in like manner. On the fourth day, the salt is removed and they are piled up, layer upon layer. On the fifth day, they are again dipped into a bath to remove all grains of salt and then piled up, layer upon layer, in the open air to a height of from 10 to 12 feet, in squares or parallelograms of from 15 by 15 or 15 by 25 feet dimension. The whole portion of the process preceding the piling up is conducted under shelter in buildings open for the most part on all sides, and with a simple roof covering of corrugated iron. The tasajo is then put up in piles, which are covered on the top with a canvas held down with big stones to prevent the wind from removing it and to gradually weigh down the meat, in order to press out the remaining superfluous juices that gradually trickle down. the sides, forming small pools around the bottom of the pile. The time required for the completion of the process is dependent on the weather. It consists solely in taking each piece of beef from the pile separately and hanging it over wooden railings erected for that purpose. In replacing these pieces each night, the upper layers of the pile are placed below and the sides reversed. Three to four "tendidas, or exposures to the sun and air, in the summer months, usually suffice to obtain the Brazilian quality of tasajo. The Cuban tasajo requires longer exposure and desiccation—on the average four or five "tendidas" more. In summer, the meat is exposed or hung out on clear days from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. and in the spring and autumn from 10 a. m. to 3 p. m., the greatest caution being observed to avoid its exposure during the hours when the dew is falling, which spoils the meat. It is claimed that the Uruguayan cattle produce 10 to 15 per cent more tasajo, being fatter. The loss by shrinkage in the beef for Brazilian tasajo is 43 to 45 per cent, while that for the West Indian tasajo is from 50 to 52 per cent. The fatter tasajo is exported to Brazil, the leaner to Cuba and the other islands of the West Indies; the separation of these two classes of tasajo is made during the process of exposure. The price of Cuban tasajo is therefore from 10 to 15 per cent higher than that of Brazilian tasajo. The The rate of wages for labor at the saladeros is as follows: Common labor earns from 80 cents to $1. 20 gold per day. most of the labor connected with the making of tasajo, such as |