of the extract and concentrated meat trade, and established the first factory for this purpose in South America. Their business is so extensive that they now slaughter about two hundred thousand head of cattle annually at their factories on the banks of the River Uruguay, where they prepare their extracts--Lemco, Oxo, Concentrated Soups, Preserved Beef, Tongues, Beef Meal, and Canned Meat. No rivals come anywhere near them in output, for they utilise many times the number of animals disposed of by all their competitors put together. Their factories at Frey Bentos and Colon are most extensive and adequately equipped, and are models of what such places should be, and very different from the native “Saladero.” Going through the various departments of these two factories, the visitor would not be surprised if told that he was in an engineering, joinery, or almost any kind of industrial establishment; for all branches of the modern workshop are carried on in different parts of the premises. Nearly everything required for upkeep and packing is made upon the spot in the foundries, machine shops, carpenters’ shops and the marvellous tin can factory with its elaborate machinery that is almost human. Here tins of various sizes are cut out, shaped and soldered for the packing of preserved meats, tongues, etc., whilst in another department the machinery for filling and hermetically sealing these tins is equally ingenious and interesting. Large coopers’ shops turn out hundreds of barrels for packing the by-products, such as hides, fat, and tallow. Boilers (mechanically fed), engines, pumps, and electric plant for light and power, occupy their allotted places, and the wharves in front, busy with steamers, sailing vessels, and barges, give the place the appearance of a town of no mean importance. [Illustration: COLON.] The appointments of the slaughtering and flaying beds offer a marked contrast to the old-fashioned methods, and the equipment of the factory for boiling and evaporation is the outcome of experience and the highest engineering skill in its thousand and one details, so complicated as to be bewildering to the mere layman.