Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1891-02-20
CHAPTER OF EGG LORE.
what the Hen Does for Humanity
Fresh Eggs the Year Round.

"Fresh Eggs" the Year Round.
Very few of those who visit their gro
Gerry and purchase their modest fitteen
and twenty-five cents worth nave
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, 4O0
barrels of seventy dozens each, ana f4o,-
S43 cases of thirty dozens each, or grand
total of IN, 399, 240 eggs in New YORK last
yearl How many of these were fresR
Take stroll down Washington street
and see tho 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 a covered
wooden pail in hand they watch the
cracked eggs being taken out. They buy
them up aud resell them to the bakers
No bad eggs can be palmed of 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.
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 n 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 1t is
almost matter of impossibility for board
ing house keepers to supply their patrons
with "fresh eggs all the year round. I'm
less persons can keep their own hens fresh
eggs must, with them, be at discount.
The hen is IL 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 a little
more than 100 years ago, and an excellent
method it is, but such eggs are easily de
tected, and while a prejudice exists
against them they can seldom be foisteC
as fresh.
| The later invention of refrigeratiug con
sists in holding eggs in proper packages il
a cool temperature, so that they will moi
grow old too fast The temperature il
generally from 3S to 40 degs., in which
they are often kept from three to si1
months. But these ice house eggs arr
usually found to be risky" They come
into the market early in the fall, jus
when trade is picking up and prices adj
vancing. They work off rapidly at first
but the regular egg eater soon discover
that there is something wrong, and the,
are incontinently dropped" The wors
of this kind comes from Canada, wher
they are packed in oat hulls.-New Yorl
World.