The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-03-02

full into the house and then put into
case containing $50 other eggs. It will
be protected from contact with other
eggs by cardboard partitions. You know
how they are made. We will sag that
this particular farmer lives half days
journey from the nearest railroad station,
so he does not think it worth while tG
market his own eggs, but waits for the
egg collector to come around. This in
dividual shows up two or three times
a week, according to the condition OF
the roads. If the travelling is good, the
egg waits in the crate two days. By the
time that it is three days old it has ar
rived at the railroad station, been loaded
into refrigerator car and started on its
long journey east. The car in which it
makes its journey is one which has been
built especially for the purpose.
Now this egg might have been started
for St. Paul or San Francisco. But it
wasn't. The shipper who bought it found
that the price per dozen was 1 cent more
in New York than it was in any of the
other cities. So it went first to Chicago
By the time it reached there our egg was
travelling in considerable company of
it's own kind. The car in which it had
started had stopped at good many sta
l1ODS Ou b1S way, DIT OdCu VI WHICH, u1OE6
cases, all filed with eggs, had been put
in until there was not room for another
case. At Chicago the cases were taken
out and sorted. Those going to Phila-
delphia were put in one car, those for
New York in another and so ON until
train of / 5 or 20 cars was made up. In
each of these cars were 400 cases each
containing $50 eggs, SO that if there had
hopT1 a C111aGh M on tho road fhor0 III
have been a raw omelet made of some
thing like 1850, 900 eggs.
After a journey of five days our Iowa
egg arrives in New York. Then, if it is
handled quickly, it is delivered to the
retailer in another day. Possibly the
very next day it is sold to New Yorker
by the veracious dairyman as ''strict-
ly fresh" egg and reaches the table ten
days after it was laid in the nest by
the Iowa hen.
That is not half bad, considering, and
the egg, as a matter of fact was wholly
good when sold to the New Yorker, al
though he would probably have been
highly indignant had he known the ex-
act age of the egg. Eggs two weeks old,
however, are just as good as those two
days old if they have been properly
kept. In the cold storage warehouses
they are kept for two months and sold
as fresh, and it takes an egg expert to
detect an egg that has been kept in dry
storage for three months. The ordinary
cook couldn't do it.
There was a time when the American
hens did not lay enough eggs to supply
the American table. Ten years ago we
imported annually over 5000, 900 eggs
that had been gathered from all parts
of Europe. They were shipped from
Antwerp on slow steamers that took IL
days to make the trip.
Today, however, owing to the i'm
proved methods of railroad transporta-
ton, the American hen is on top, and
Uncle Sam can proudly say that he lays
his own eggs. Nearly all the western
states contribute their share except those
beyond the Rockies, but the largest pro-
duction of chen fruit is in Iowa, with
Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas stand
ing next on the list. Tennessee and
North Carolina also contribute largely
The heaviest shipments of eggs from
the west are made just before Easter
each year, although all through Lent
they are sent in big trainloads. During
the week preceding last Easter there
were received in New York city alone
20, $50, 600 eggs. Chicago, Philadelphia,
Cincinnati and other big cities had to
have their millions of eggs, too, so you
see that the American hens are kept
rather busy daring Lent when eggs are
in great demand.