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The pleasures of the table are enjoyed by all who possess good health. Nothing is more fascinating than to be seated at a well-served, well-cooked breakfast or dinner; and yet, of the immense number that enjoy the good cheer and luxuries of the table, how few, very few, there are who stop to consider the vexatious trouble our host undergoes when arranging the daily bill of fare. “Variety is the spice of life,” but nowhere is it more important, aye, actually necessary, than in the getting up of a palatable meal. This pertains not only to the dining-room of a hotel of the least pretensions or to the so-called “grand” restaurant, but particularly to the family table. The writer has known a gentleman who presided over an immense restaurant, and daily provided the supplies therefor. He experienced no difficulty with any single part of his business, yet when he came to arrange the details of his own family’s meals, and attempted to practically fulfill them, he was puzzled and annoyed beyond description. And, after all, there is no place in the civilized world where the market for the supply of food is so well provided as in New York, both as to variety and excellence, and even as to luxuries. Educated as thousands of persons have been, in the art of dining, by the famous Delmonico and his able lieutenants, New York, perhaps, contains a larger number of so-called high-livers than any other city.

These “gourmands” (if you please), and their number is legion, have, with the aid of the excellent resources of the American market and the encouragement given to the culinary art of the period, brought the modern American table to virtual perfection. This is saying a great deal, inasmuch as the famed restaurants of London, Paris, and Vienna have ever claimed a reputation and an ascendancy over others that seemed to form a part of history itself.

But as times change, so we change with them. Westward the course of Empire sways, and the great glory of the past has departed from those centres where the culinary art at one time defied all rivals. The sceptre of supremacy has passed into the hands of the great metropolis of the New World. It has been the writer’s good fortune to gain experience on this subject from his observations in Europe as well as in this country. He can state, without fear of contradiction, that more first-class, well-fatted, and corn-fed cattle reach the markets of New York, than any other market of the United States. Whenever a first-class article of beef is required by one of the inland hotels, they send to New York for it.

Ask the ordinary traveler, and he will tell you that a first-class steak, an “A 1” chop, or prime roast beef is a rara avis in hotels outside of New York. London has excellent mutton and good beef; that is all. Paris gives plenty of variety, but it is all of an inferior quality with the exception of veal, which is good. The same may be said of northern Germany, where, in addition, the larger hotels in Hamburg and Bremen are able to supply good steaks, the cattle in that country being of fine quality.

Yet no American, accustomed to his prime beef at New York, can be pleased at any of these continental hotels, as he loses sight of his favorite roast and steak.

At the extensive cattle yards of Berlin, which are under control of an excellent administration, and perfectly arranged, it was impossible, for instance, on a well-supplied market day to find a single dozen corn-fed young steers that would make good enough beef for first-class custom in New York. The bulk of cattle offered for sale was made up of oxen that had been overworked—they had horns bigger than themselves—and the remainder were old cows and bulls.

Of the bovine family, the branch most celebrated for the good quality of beef is the Durhams or Shorthorns. It is only fifty years ago that the first were imported to this country from England, and so well have they prospered and multiplied that the finest and best specimens of the race are now found in these United States. They are now freely exported, at large prices, to the mother-country, where they are highly prized for breeding purposes. There are farms in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and even in Missouri and Kansas, that turn out annually from 300 to 1,000 head of fatted, corn-fed cattle, from two to four years old, and weighing from 1,500 to 2,500 pounds per head.

As to mutton, this country is already beginning to occupy a position second to none. We may probably not as yet surpass England in this respect, but we have learned a great deal on this subject during the past thirty years; hence the American breed of sheep has considerably improved. The quality and flavor of our mutton is improving to that extent that a long time cannot possibly elapse before the prejudice now existing in favor of the English article must give way to the honest acknowledgment that the American mutton, if not superior to, stands at least fully on a par with, the English rival.

Our farmers and agriculturists have learned a great deal on this question. They now know that, as to early lambs, for instance, the ewes should be strong, and kept in good condition, so that they can supply the lambs with plenty of milk. They are now kept in a warm barn where the cold winds do not touch them, and where the sun can shine on them. They commence feeding them by putting a little bran in the lamb’s mouth, so that it can taste it, and the lambs commence eating from a box separate from the sheep. They generally feed them with cracked corn or meal, and sometimes oats and corn ground together, with plenty of milk from the ewes. If kept in good order and well fed, they will be ready for market by the time they are six to eight weeks old. After the month of June, lambs come from New York State—mostly from Dutchess County. They are turned out to graze on the hills, where some cracked corn and meal are put in the fields, so they can eat it at their pleasure. Many of the late sheep and lambs come from Canada. Two of the largest sheep ever sold in New York were raised by Mr. Vail, of Dutchess County, and sold by A. Luyster to Mr. L. Delmonico for the sum of $100. The two weighed, alive, 632 lbs., and dressed, 420 lbs.

One of the leading questions that directly affects the American cuisine is the contest now progressing as to the transportation of animal food to the great Eastern markets. Heretofore live cattle were transported to, and slaughtered at, the places of consumption. This so-called home-slaughtering interest has within the past few years experienced great competition with the slaughterers of cattle in the far West, who have brought their meats to the Eastern market in refrigerator-cars. The great question now is: Which is the better way, and by which method are the public interests served the best, as well as the sanitary condition of this important article of food most improved?

There can be no doubt that, while this controversy lasts, the consumer has already been benefited, and the transportation of live cattle has already been greatly facilitated and improved. The quality of the meat does not depend upon the place where the animal is slaughtered, but it does depend upon the state of the animal’s health when it is slaughtered. Let the cattle-cars be improved so that cattle can be transported without being knocked about and bruised, and let them be properly fed and watered while in transit; after making the long journey from the far West, let them be well rested and cooled off before slaughtering.

The Western dressed-beef men will also have to be on their mettle in order to meet the exigencies of the times. Let them keep their wild prairie cattle and their scalawags out of the better markets, handle their beef carefully, keep it subjected to a uniform temperature of about 38° Fahrenheit, discard all artificial preservative means, and all opponents to their interests will be bereft of argument.