St. Paul daily globe., 1895-02-18
FIXED BY FOSTER.
Thu Corner on Eggs Nets
Large Profits to a Man in
Winona.
WORKED THE DEAL ALONE.
Hens Of Three States Aided
in the Production Of the
Fruit.
SHIPPED A CARLOAD A DAY.
Senator Stebbins- Tells OF a
New Breed Of Egg Pro-
CucefS.
SHIPPED A CARLOAD A DAY.


So says R. A. Foster, OF
winona the gentleman so wide
lv advertised through the pa
pers as owning about all OF the
available hen fruit in the country.
Foster is a commission man, resldlng
and doing business in W1nona' "A
gentleman was at the Windsor yes
terday who knows Mr.. Foster very
well. He is described as small
man, full of energy and vim, OF
Yankee birth, and middle-aged. He
has lived in Winona fifteen years or
more" said the traveller, "and mas
devoted his attention almost eX-
clusively to the egg trade. In the
summer months he also handleS
fruit by the carload. He does not
depend on Minnesota alone for his
supply, but goes into Wisconsin, and
even as far as Dakota. Undoubt-
edly he is the heaviest egg shipper
in the country, if not in the world.
He had the market practically cor
nered once before-that is, in the
sense of having a tremendous stock
on hand that he alone controlled.
At that time, however, he did not
clear up any very large profits, be-
cause a warm spell came, just as 1t
has now, and upset the calculations.
Friends have advised Mr.. Foster to
unload in time, and the chances are
that he has got rid of a large part
of his stock ere this. OF course
there has been some eXaggeratlon
concerning this so-called corner, but
nevertheless Foster can undoubtedly
get almost his own price for the eggs
he holds"
It was also learned that r. A.
Foster & Co. have no cold storage
house in Winona. Beginning early
in the spring, the firm gathers in
all the eggs that money can buy,
and they have control of all the
money needed. The eggs are picked
over, packed and shipped to Chicago,
sometimes at the rate of carload
a day. There they are stored with
the Western Union Cold Storage
company, and hell to await fa-
vorable time to sell. When it is re-
membered that eggs can be bought
in the rurGl districts of Minnesota,
in the spring and early summer for
8 to II cents a dozen, it will be seen
that the Winona firm made nice
profit on sales when the price was
pushed up to 35 cents a dozen in
New York recently. Undoubtedly
they would have gone to and re-
manned at 40 cents had the cold
spell continued much longer.
Mr.. Foster is averse to notoriety, and
no one has been able to secure a
photograph from which a cut of the
cock of the walk in the egg world
could be made. Speaking with Capt
Van SAINT of this fact, he remarked
that Winona men are all modest "But
they get there just the same,'' said
the speaker "and the luck and wisdom
of Winona people cannot we'll be eggs
aggerated." This fearful pun can be
forgiven, considering that the jovial
speaker is a privileged character.
Senator Yale, asked about Mr.. Fos-
ter, said he was a very good business
man, but he evidently slipped a cog in
falling to get all the laying hens of
the country cornered into his barn
yard.
Senator Stebbins, of Rochester, is
something of an expert on eggs and
hens himself-not in the sense that he
can hatch the one and catch the other,
but from the standpoint of knowing a
good thing when he sees it, and being
able to push it along The questions
asked recalled to his mind story, he
said, of a farmer in Kentucky who
has succeeded in producing a very pc
culiar breed of fowl. Let him tell the
story in his own words: My Ken
lucky friend says the senator, "and
by the way, he's a man who never
drinks, some years ago conceived the
idea that we who live in Minnesota
would be fortunate if we could secure
a breed of chickens that would be
able to stand the rigors of our climate
even with the mercury down as far as
it can conveniently go. When he
wrote to me 1 realized that he be-
lieved we had here a region of eternal
snow, where the cackle of a her
would freeze in the air, while their
| feet would freeze in the ice water
| that, as he thought, rains down on us
| in summer.
80 my friend set himself diligently
| to work to create a breed of fur-bear.
| ing chickens. Skin grating was the
| method adopted on the first pair d
| carefully selected cock and hen.A lot ol
well-conditioned rabbits We're secured
| and the skin transferring was pursued
! half an inch at a time, until the two
were completely covered. Of course
| this process was more or less painful
but the results were most excellent
| He found such good market for his
| fowl and their eggs nearer home that
he has not yet shipped any to Mime
| sofa, though l am expecting a pair foI
my private hen yard the coming
spring. The eggs sell for dollar q
! dozen, 1 am told, and are as readily
| Matched as the common egg"
| Frank Day said he had heard OF
| Senator Stebbins' new kind of chicken
! but Senator Miller and himself, both
| farmer journalists, had consulted Sen.
ator McHale on the matter and the lat
ter had told them it would be impossi.
bic to propagate the breed in Mime
sofa, because any well-regulated her
would die of fright If she should hatch
| out chicks with buffalo overcoats on.
Dr.. Forbes, the senate chaplain, does
| not question Mr.. Fosters right to rur
a corner on eggs, but he does asser
that Senator Stebbins' story of the new
I breed of fowl is no more worthy of be
lief than Mr.. Jacobson's report that {
Populist up in Lac qui Parle county
has horse blanket that is growing
| fresh crop of hair
The whole matter has now beer
| turned over to the farmer philosophe,
and boss elucidator, Senator Greer
| for an unprecedented opinion, to be de
| livered with his trigger finger in sus
| pense.
PERSONALS.
r. Warner left last night for New
| "a will Ia al.