Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-14

agricultural produce for which the demand
is unlimited, and perhaps the only one in
which we might, did we choose, defy for
eign competition. They not only mean
money, but they command prices that adj
nit of profit, compared with which beef
and mutton of little account, and wheat
and barley not worth mentioning Hens,
for those who know how TO utilize them,
lay eggs which, if not made of gold, are
quite capable of being turned into that
metal, when they are retailable all the
year round, one month with another, at
something MT much short of penny
apiece, while the eggs of ducks will bring
a still more remunerative price.
Eggs are a meal in themselves. Every
element necessary to the support of man is
contained within the limits of an egg-shell,
in the best proportions and in the most
palatable form. Plain boiled, they are
wholesome. The masters of French cook
cry, however, affirm that it is easy to dress
them in more than 500 different ways,
each method not only economical but salu-
tary in the highest degree. No honest
appetite ever yet rejected an egg in some
guise. 1t is nutriment in the most porta-
bic form and in the most concentrated
shape. Whole nations of mankind rarely
touch any other animal food. Kings eat
them plain as readily as do the humble
tribesmen.
After the victory of Muhldorf, when
the Kaiser Ludwig sat at meat with his
burggrafs and great captains, he deter
mined on piece of luxury" one egg to
every man and two to the excellently
valiant Schwepperman." Far more than
fsh-for its watery diet-eggs are the
scholars fare. They contain phosphorus,
which is brain-food, and sulphur, which
performs variety of functions in the
economy. And they are the best of nutri-
ment for children, for, in u compact form,
they contain everything that is necessary
for the growth of the youthful frame.
Eggs are, however, not only food; they
are medicine also. The white is the most
efficacious of remedies for burns, and the
oil extractable from the yolll is regarded
by the Russians as an almost miraculous
salye for cuts, bruises and scratches.
4 raw egg, if swallowed in time, will eff
fectually detach fsh-bone in the throat,
and the white of two eggs will render the
deadly corrosive sublimate as harmless as a
dose of calomel. They strengthen the con-
sumptive, invigorate the feeble, and render
the most susceptible all but proof against
.aundice in its most malignant phase.
They can also be drunk in the shape of
that "egg-tlip," which sustains the oratori-
cal efforts of modern statesman. The
merits Of eggs do not end even here. In
France alone the wine CHARTERS use more
than 100000 year, and the Alsatians
consume fully 3S,000,000 in calico printing
and for dressing the leather used in max
ing the finest of French kid gloves. FL
nally, not to mention various other employ
ments for eggs in the arts, they may, of
course, almost without trouble on the farm
er's part, be converted into fowls, which,
in any shape, are profitable to the seller
and welcome to the buyer. Even egg
shells are valuable, for allopath and homeo-
path alike agree in regarding them as the
purest of carbonate of lime.
In the face of these facts, it seems al
most incredible that an article of COM
merce, to produce which requires hardly
any capital, and is salable in any quantity,
is so little attended to that the supply i.
in England altogether unequal to the de-
man. How many eggs are laid within the
British Islands can only be ca lculated with
an approximate degree of accuracy Ac-
cording to the latest agricultural returns,
there are at present in the United Kingdom
something like 10000, 000o barn-door fowls,
though, as the poultry in pos ssion of the
cottagers were not, except in re case of
Ireland, taken into account, the return
may be regarded as much under, rather
than over, the mark. Twenty-Five millions
would be nearer the real number Now, if
we deduct from this the permanent non
layers" in the shape of male birds, and
the II 100000 which reach the market in
the form of poultry for the table, the re-
mainder will represent sitting hens and
mere chickens.
Some fowls will lay as many as 220 eggs
per annum, while others do not yield one
third of that number But if, according to
the calculation of correspondent, whose
figures we printed some months ago, each
hen is credited with 100 eggs, there would
be at least 600,000,000 of eggs of our home
fowling. This supply, prodigious as it
seems, Is, however, a mere trifie compared
with the quantity required. For if the
egg-eaters of the kingdom are put at 25,-
100000, the number mentioned would not
admit of each of them consuming more
than about twenty-iour per annum. That,
of course, is far below the mark
Many middle-class families use for the
breakfast-table and for cooking fully one
hundred per week, while confectioners, ho-
tells, restaurants and others must consume
every day four or five times as many. to
say nothing of the cratefuls absorbed by
various arts and manufactures. In one
Photographic establishment alone two
million are used every year, while the
amount required for various processes in
calico printing, leather dressing, and, we
believe, in book-binding, must exceed the
number employed in food. From what
quarter, then, are the wants of Britain
supplied? Our eggs are not manufactured
in America, as an ingenious myth circu-
lated some years ago affirmed to be
the case. The simple truth is that the
eggs are imported.
The extent to which they are brought
across the sea is proved by the fact that
last year we paid gS,000,000 to the foreign
farmers for eggs, every pound CT which
might have easily remained at home for
the enrichment of the British landholder.
A payment of $4,000, 900 per anuum means
that the eggs for which this sum was paid
iuust HdNe cOlne INTO our ports at the rate
of more than three million and a quarter
on every working day. To this branch of
the British commissariat France contri-
butes most largely, Germany and Belgium
coming next. Every year these ;mporta-
tions are increasing, the number brought
from the Continent in 1863 being not
much more than third of the amount
entering last year. And this enormous
number does not include the eggs of ducks.
geese and turkeys, or those of plovers and
other wild birds, for which high prices are
invariably given.
Altogether calculating one penny as the
average price given for one egg, the CORE
spondent, whose statistics we quote, reck-
ons the total cost of our egg supply at
nearly e6,700000. Now-leaving out of
account the tons of fowls which are I'M
ported-it is perfectly certain that if our
farmers choose to bestir themselves. not
one farthing need go out of the kingdom
for the purchase OF eggs and that they
might profitably pocket the e3,000,O00,
oh fbs, -