The Arizona sentinel., 1886-03-27
ALL ABOUT EGGS.
Ingenious Devices For Keeping Hen-Fruis
 Sweet and Fresh.

Ingenious Devices For Keeping Hen-FruiI
 Sweet and Fresh.
 The difficulty of obtaining perfectly fresh eggs during the winter months is a source of much annoyance to those good housewives who take pride in the quality of the yiands set before their families and properly regard the i'm portance of fresh and nourishing food. The boarding house mistress, who is so frequently derided by the paragraphers, finds the winter harvest of eggs admira- hly adapted to assisting her in making life a burden to those boarders whom fate places at her mercy; and the sup ply of eggs unfit for publication exceeds the demand even in those centers where theatrical audiences are most demonstra- - lively critical.
 In the winter months it is almost inn possible to purchase in Chicago eggs with an absolutely untarnished escutcheon. The hens of the surrounding country be- come dissatisfied and sOcialistic. They either fiatly refuse to lay, or, if they are not imperYious to entreaties,- threats and arguments, they lay eggs that they are ashamed of and that farmers are only willing to take off their hands in order that, with the proverbial sim plicity of the honest rustic, they may be- guile the dwellers in cities with dam aged stock. A South Water street dealer told representative of the JT16- une that the present winter had been particularly. disastrous to the egg crop. The majority of the fresh eggs in the Chicago market are shipped from regions as remote as Texas and even in the extreme South the hens have seemed averse to the pursuit of their special in- dustry. This refers to the eggs that are really fresh. Of the processes most in favor for imparting artificial freshness to eggs and causing them to retain their original and desirable qualities the .'cold-storage,' system is the principal one. Nearly all important towns in the - Northwest have their cold-storage ware houses, which are large buildings, some of them nearly as extensive as our grain elevators. The ice-chambers are in the upper part of the building, which are kept at an equable temperature of about 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The pro- prietorS of the cold-storage warehouses purchase eggs from the farmers and ship them to dealers and commission men. Many carloads of eggs are sent from this part of the country to New York and other Eastern cities. The eggs are purchasedfor cold storage dur ing the spring and summer, and are not shipped until the winter months, when the supply of genuinely fresh eggs be- gins to fail. The old method of preserV- ing eggs was the picking process, which is still in use to a considerable extent. The chief components of this method are lime and salt. Picked eggs do not, however, command the price obtainable for cold-storage eggs, the formers price averaging about b cents per dozen and the latter's about P cents. One reason influencing these comparative prices is the appear ance of the eggs, the cold-storage article being clean and of natural color, while the pickled eggs are more or less discolored Of the methods and preservatives hitherto in vented for the keeping of eggs nearly all have proved valuelesS because they failed ? ed to preserve the essential properties of the egg when taken from the shell. A South Water street firm is now manu- featuring a compound which, it is 6 claimed will keep an egg perfectly good for an indefinite time. A can of this compound is dissolved in barrel of water, and this quantity of liquid will preserve 120 dozens of eggs. The treat ed eggs are placed in cool, dark place and kept till wanted for shipment or sale Eggs will hatch in uniform temperature of 102 degrees. Ex- posture to the sun in summer often subjects them to this degree of heat and causes them to addle. Evaporation is continually going on through the pores of the shell, and it is claimed that placing an egg in the compound referred to seals up the pores and renders the shell air-tight It is further asserted of this method that when an egg has re- mained for thirty days in the solution it can be kept pure for three months after it is taken out. An egg was exhibited upon which was the label of farmer in Michigan, stating that the egg was put in solution in September, 1884. It was held before lighted candle and proved to be perfectly transparent-the usual test employed by grocers and others and on being broken it proved to be per fectly sweet and fresh. Other inventions are also in the market which are similar in the process of operation and in the results aimed at. Still the scarcity of satisfactory eggs in the Chicago market -is an undisputed fact, despite the num- Der of patents designed for their preser- vation and shipment. The inventors of | these preserving processes claim that the reason for that is that their con- pounds have not yet come into general use, and that the majority of the eggs furnished by dealers have only been kept in cold storage warehouses.-Ch Chicago Tribune.