Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1883-08-09
lGlIhe Aoulhg nard
HOW TO PRESERVE EGGs.

There is slight difference between "pre-
serving" eggs and keeping them tor an in
definite period as fresh as il new laid. This
is just what is overlooked by many poultry
keepers, who are anxious to have US give
them some ''recipe" or "secret process"
which will enable them to store all their
eggs when plenty, and sell them when
scarce-truly most desirable thing to do,
and easy of accomplishment if it is not ex-
pected that the preserved eggs will be quite
is fresh as If warm from the hen-it is well
to regard with suspicion all processes for
keeping eggs fresh the year round, the re-
ceipt for which is given away or sold for
twenty five cents, more or less. Usually the
most wonderful thing about these secrets is
the announcement that such a valuable dis
covery should be seld so cheap, and it is
only when possessed of the "secret" that we
realize that we have been sold at the same
price.
Usually it does not pay to attempt to pre-
serve eggs, but there are cases, when eggs
are extremely cheap in summer, when they
can be kept till winter at handsome profit.
The best way to do it depends often upon
the facilities one possesses for applying the
different methods. Chemistry shows US
that a fair-sized hens egg weighs about
1000 grains: 600 grains constitute the white,
300 the yolk and 100 the she'll The white,
divided into 100 parts, is so paris water, 153
albumen, Al salts, ETC.; the yolk contains
53a parts water, 173 albunen, and 2s& oil,
with small proportion of salts. The shell
is simply the skin of the egg. and like all
skins it is porous. TIE egg, itself, as we see
by the above analysis, is largely composed
of water. and it is the loss of this water by
evaporation through the pores OF the skin
that causes decay. Impure air, bearing the
seeds of decay, enters as the water passes
out, and the moisture still left in the egg
only assists the process Of putrefaction. 1t
is curious fact that i you can keep all the
water confined in the egg 1t will not rot,
and If You can, on the other hand. drive it
all out the substance of the egg left will keep
for years exposed to air The latter, then,
indicates the way of preserving eggs-dry-
ing them-the moisture is all expelled by
heat, the yolk and white crystalized and
converted into a substance resembling
coarse corn meal. 1t is then sold as desicca-
ted egg. This method is not practicable to
the average poultry keeper, however, as
special machinery is required, and after the
eggs are thus preserved they are not the
same as fresh eggs by any means. Althou gh
answering every purpose of eggs in Gull
nary use, such as In making pies. cakes, etc.
Probably the most successful method yet
adopted of preserving eggs, is the we'll
known cold storage system, by which not
only the egg, but the hen that lays it, may
be preserved for an indefinite length OF time.
Fresh eggs, kept constantly In refrigerator
the temperature of which is held at q point
just aboue freezing, will remain fresh for a
long period, as there is little or no eyapora-
ton, the cause of decay, in such an atmoS-
phere.
Many are the methods of preventing this
evaporation by stopping up the pores of the
egg shell an egg hermetrically sealed will
keep fresh-of this there is no doubt, and ii
naturally follows that the nearer we can
come to making the shell air-tight the longer
| its contents will remain unspoiled. Here