The development of methods for measuring quality and palatability is obviously the first problem in meat investigations. Research along this line is governed by the desire and necessity for recording quality and palatability by laboratory means. The opinions of the cooked meat grading committee, beef graders and etc., are the only means available for checking laboratory methods, but once these latter are established they will give a much more accurate and dependable comparison of meat samples than will personal opinions. The efforts to develop a mechanical test for tenderness aim to transfer the measure of this factor from the personal to the laboratory basis. The mechanical device or “Mouse Trap” as developed in the laboratory at Beltsville has been used on all the meat studies for tthe last two years. Suggested and desirable changes in this device have not been made in order to give an opportunity to compare the first year's work with that of the second.