The House of Morrell; with a foreword by William ... - University Library

tccincd liiifhly meat from buffalo, elk, caribou and moose. We know they
made pemmican from the lean Hcsh of the buftalo or venison, sun-dried and
pounded.
Perhaps the earliest settlers secured some of their ideas for handling
meat from the Indians but it is also known they brought with them some
of the practices common in Europe, curinjr, smoking and packing meats.
The earliest authentic record of importation of swine into this country
is dated 1538 and covers swine brought from Cuba to Florida by Ferdinand
de Soto. Cattle and hogs were delivered to Newfoundland and Nova
Scotia by Portuguese traders in 1^53. Although some cattle had reached
Virginia before 1609, the first big shipment arrived in 1610. The first
sheep came from England to Virginia in 1609.
Each group of settlers brought in the domestic animals natural to their
land. And as they pushed westward in search of a home, they took along
with them their sheep, hogs and cattle.
Meat as a food product was so vital, so important to those first settlers
that, in order to protect valuable animals which had been so carefully
transported across the sea, an edict was published which forbade the killing
of domestic animals of any kind. Of course there was reason behind
this edict and it served its purpose admirably. Because of it farmers had
to protect their domestic animals and use them for breeding stock, and in
this manner herds increased rapidly.
The penalties set up for infractions against the edict were so severe
that no one willingly disobeyed them. The owner could be sentenced to
death; an accessory stood the chance of having his hand burned or losing
an ear, while anyone concealing product handled in direct violation of the
law might find himself sentenced to a 24 hours' whipping. Harsh though
these penalties may have been, even for the seventeenth century, they
served to protect the meat needs of the colonists, and herds were built up
in good measure. And the country was ready for the beginnings of the
meat packing industry.
Settlers in the New England states found their dairying, cattle feeding,
and hog raising operations were becoming increasingly larger. In the valley
of the Connecticut river an important cattle industry had developed.
Market days came into existence as a means of disposing of surplus stock
and providing stock for butchering purposes. Rudolf Alexander Clemens,
in his American Live Stock and Meat Indus try, quotes a piece from the
Country Gentleman of i860 which gives a pretty good idea of what one
of these market days was like. He writes:
"Thursday of every week which by common consent and custom is the
market day, changes the generally quiet village of Brighton into a scene
of bustle and excitement. At early morning the cattle, sheep, etc., are hurried
in and soon the morning train from Boston, omnibuses, carriages and