h pounds in four. Beef of a close, firm fiber shrinks less than
meat of coarse fiber.

Good veal is slightly reddish or pink, and the fat should be white and
clear. Avoid veal without fat, as such is apt to be too young to be
wholesome.

Good mutton should be firm and compact, the flesh, fine-grained and
bright-red, with an accumulation of very hard and clear white fat along
the borders of the muscles.

Meat should not be kept until decomposition sets in, as by the
putrefaction of the albuminous elements certain organic poisons are
generated, and flesh partaken of in this condition is liable to result
in serious illness. Meat containing white specks is probably infested by
parasites and should not be used as food.

PRESERVATION OF MEAT.--The tendency of flesh foods to rapid
decomposition has led to the use of various antiseptic agents and other
methods for its preservation.

One of the most common methods is that of immersion in a brine made of a
solution of common salt to which a small portion of saltpeter has been
added. This abstracts the juice from the meat and also lessens the
tendency to putrefaction. Salt is used in various other ways for
preserving meat. It should be remarked, however, that cured and dried
meats are much more difficult to digest than fresh meat, and the nature
of the meat itself is so changed by the process as to render its
nutritive value much less.

Meat is sometimes packed in salt and afterward dried, either in the sun
or in a current of dry air. Both salting and smoking are sometimes
employed. By these means the juices are abstracted by the salt, and at
the same time the flesh is contracted and hardened by the action of
creosote and pyroligneous acid from the smoke.

What is termed "jerked" beef is prepared by drying in a current of warm
air at about 140 deg. This dried meat, when reduced to a powder and packed
in air-tight cans, may be preserved for a long time. When mixed with
fat, it forms the pemmican used by explorers in Arctic voyages.

Meat is also preserved by cooking and inclosing in air-tight cans after
the manner of canning fruit. This process is varied in a number of ways.

The application of cold has great influence in retarding decomposition,
and refrigeration and freezing are often employed for the preservation
of flesh foods.

All of these methods except the last are open to the objection that
while they preserve the meat, they greatly lessen its nutritive value.