The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1892-10-29
EGGSPERIME MENTAL.

lHe lOliOWlnS INTERVIEW Will pOui-
try man, taken from the New York
SIN, may be of interest to the several
Household correspondents who think
of egg raising as a vocation. (Not as
an avocation, which means doing
something in your spare hours, while
your proper business is something
else.)
How many eggs is hen wound up
to lay during her natural laying life, do
you supposeP said man who makes a
business of poultry raising and eggs.
You've no idea, eh1 Well, sir, good
healthy hen-I'm not speaking Of
Wyandottes or Leghorns, Plymouth
Rocks, or any particular breed, but
just hen-a good, healthy hen doesn't
fulfill her destiny until she has turned
out 600 eggs-5o dozen eggs. That
is what nature fitted up the hen to do
in the way of eggs. and gives her eight
years to do it in. The first year of her
reproducing life the hen lays only
20 eggs, but in the three succeeding
years she rolls up a score of $40. That
leaves her only 2So to get rid of in
the four remaining years that she is to
be on duty in that line, and she divides
the task up among these four years so
that in the eighth year she lays only
20 eggs agaln-the number she started
in with. Then she has ended her
career as an egg producer, and too
often, if she is IN the hands of thrifty
owner, begins another career, this time
as summer boarder spring chicken.
There is a lot about hens eggs,
familiar as they are to every one, that
people don't suspect. Now, here's an
egg that would be rooster if it should
be hatched out. This one would
develop into hen. How do l knowP
l learned it by long observation of
eggs and their habits. The small end
OF hens egg will be either as smooth
as marble or wrinkled like a nutmeg.
Some folks won't buy eggs that are
wrinkled, because wrinkles are a sure
sign of age. A wrinkled egg indicates
that 1t holds a rooster in embryo. A
protoplastlc hen is enveloped by the
smooth-ended she'll. But they both
taste alike. Each has its proportion
OF phosphorus, olein, albumen, sulphur.
casein and margarine. There is
water plenty in fresh-laid egg, but
no more air than there is in hammer.
As long as you can keep tine air out of
your egg it will remain sweet and fresh
but nobody has succeeded yet in
keeping it out more than six days.
The insidious oxygen is bound to find
its way through the egg shells pores,
and the only way to save that egg then
is to eat it. 1t sounds funny, but the
moment you give an egg fresh air,
that ruins its health. People wonder
why it is that a bad egg is SO positive
aud obtruslve as to odor, but they
shouldn't. What do they expect of
combination OF purified albumen, de.
cayed cheese, sulphuric acid. carbonic
acid gas, ammonia, and ultra rancid
margarine set free? Honeysuckles2
There is no accounting for the freaks
hens often take in the laying of eggs.
Now, what sort of consistency is there
- hen that is almost b -;.1a ssusdsIr.
eat her corn ff0.=5z==::11e top of a barrel
laying an egg no bigger than sugar
PLUMP And why should a hen that
you can cover with a quart bowl get it
into her head that unless she lays an
egg that weighs half pound or so she
is not doing her duty to herself and
family? And who may account for
the purpose that seems to actuate
hens who now and then lay four or
five eggs at one time, one inside of
another, like nest of Japanese jars ?
Yet such freaks are only few that are
common in the poultry yard.