a patent Podewill
destructor to be reduced by steam pressure and rolling to a powder,
which is disposed of as an agricultural fertilizer.

On these central meat markets there is a _profit of about $100,000_.

The Corporation also controls a great live cattle market at Islington,
covering seventy-five acres. Over $2,500,000 have been spent on this
market and the modern slaughterhouses attached thereto. These
slaughterhouses are not regarded as a remunerative concern, but are
provided because they afford hygienic methods, and private
slaughterhouses in London are decreasing rapidly. Last year 37,670
cattle, 101,646 sheep, 11,722 calves and 34,981 swine were slaughtered
there, the charges being 36 cents a head for cattle, 4 cents for sheep,
8 cents for calves, and 12 cents for hogs. Mainly on account of the
extensions and improvements, this market is not being run at a profit
at present, but its public utility is held to justify the outlay. Nor
does the Deptford Cattle market, of thirty acres, maintained on the
banks of the Thames to deal with live cattle imported from abroad, pay
its way. But there has been a serious decline in imported stock in late
years, especially from America. At this market extreme precautions are
taken to prevent the entry of cattle disease that might spread
infection to British flocks and herds. All animals landed there must be
slaughtered within ten days and submitted to rigid inspection. All
hides and offal are immediately disinfected. Five hundred cattle can be
unloaded from vessels at Deptford in twenty minutes. Last year 104,351
animals were killed, the meat being sent for sale to Smithfield and
Whitechapel.

Billingsgate, the famous fish market of London, is also administered by
the Corporation. Its records cover over six hundred years. It is
hampered by narrow street approaches, but a very expeditious system of
direct delivery of fish from the Thames side of the market building
enables the licensed auctioneers to dispose of supplies very quickly.
Steam carriers collect the fish from the fleets around the coast and
deliver them packed in ice at Billingsgate every night. Billingsgate
market has cost the city $1,600,000. Stand prices are high, but there
is keen competition whenever a vacancy occurs. Last year the receipts
amounted to $182,455. The auctioneers dealt with 194,477 tons of fish,
of which 120,905 were water-borne and 73,572 land-borne. _The City
profited to the extent of over $