Wichita eagle., 1888-05-01
CHAPTER OF EGG LORE.
What the Hen Does for Humanity.
"Fresh Eggs the Year Round.

treSA Eggs the lear AsOuuus
Very few of those who visit their gro
Gerry and purchase their modest fifteen
and twenty-five cents worth have
any idea of the vast quantity OF eggs sup
piled to and by the United States of
America. The eggs received IN New York
alone during 1887 amounted to 534. 400
barrels of seventy dozens each, and 49,,
S43 cases of thirty dozens each. or grand
total of III. .399, 240 eggs in New York last
year, how many of these were fresh?
Take a stroll down Washington street
and see the merchants opening their bar
rels and cases. On the sidewalk, and even
in the buildings. are women who have
come to buy cracked eggs. Very few men
engage in this business; the women are
much shrewder, and with covered
wooden pail in hand they watch the
cracked eggs being taken out. They buy
them up and resell them TO the bakers.
No bad eggs can be palmed off on these
women; the cracked egg must be COM
pletely broken and emptied before they
accept it on their count. Many small
stores also buy cracked eggs, and these are
purchased in small quantities by board
ing house keepers who delight in home
made pastry on the table. p"
But the rotten eggs? What becomes Of
them? In former years they were taken
to the scows and dumped with the city re-
fuse, but now they are the means of sup
porting distinct line of business. They
are gathered together by the members of
an energetic commonwealth, who take
them to New Jersey, put them IN barrels
and sell them to the manufacturers of
Morocco leather. So necessary have they
become for the leather process that the
demand is frequently greater than the
supply.
In the crowded state of this city it is
almost matter of impossibility for board
ing house keepers to supply their patrons
with ''fresh eggs all the year round. Un-
less persons can keep their own hens fresh
eggs must, with them, be at discount
The hen is willful bird, subject to all the
caprices of her sex, and so long as her
nature prompts her to do most of her lay
ing during the milder portion Of the year
so long will the necessities of the case re-
quire that portion of her product shall
be kept from the period Of plenty to re-
lieve the period of scarcity. This question
of preserving eggs has excited attention
for centuries, and millions of dollars have
been lost in trying to attain perfection.
The lining process was discovered little
more than 100 years ago, and an excellent
method it is, but such eggs are easily de-
tected, and while prejudice exists
against them they can seldom be foisted
as fresh.
The later invention of refrigerating con-
sists in holding eggs in proper packagesin
a cool temperature, so that they will not
grow old too fast. The temperature is
generally from 80 to 40 degs., in which
they are often kept from three to six
months But these ice house eggs are
usually found to be ''risky." They come
into the market early in the fail, just
when trade is picking up and prices ad
vancing. They work off rapidly at first,
but the regular egg eater soon discovers
that there is something wrong, and they
are incontinently dropped. The worst
of this kind comes from Canada, where
they are packed in oat hulls.-New York
World.