Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1898-07-28
EGGS IN THE KL0NDIKE.
4 Diabolical But Ingenious Scheme to
Feed Miners ON Infertile
Hen Fruit.


"We are all so much interested in the
war nowadays" said Col. John X.
Wells, Of Seattle, recently, that most
of us have rather forgotten the Klon-
dixie, with all its rich possibilities of
news and wealth. But up in my coun-
try we are still very deeply interested
In the Alaskan gold fields, and thou
sands of our people have invested their
time, their money and many of them
their lives in the lottery of gold dig
ging. l believe l am partner in the
most diabolical and unique of all
schemes to make money out of the
poor devils that are toiling up under
the Arctic circle. My only justifca-
ton is that if l were not doing this
particular thing somebody else would
be. You know, eggs are way up in that
faraway cold and desolate region,
where the common fowl of the barn
yard is as much a foreigner as the Hot
tentot or the Terra del Fuegan. did
not go into it until was asked, and
1t was not my own idea. / have that
much to my credit with the recording
angel. IL was my nephew in one of the
little country towns about ten miles
out from Seattle who thought of the
thing. He has for several years been
interested in poultry and knows all
the fine points about it. When the ex-
element first arose about the gold
discoveries he came to me and said he
thought of shipping eggs and dressed
and frozen poultry to Dawson City,
where the prices were bound to go
high in winter time and at any time of
the year would afford a handsome
profit. I encouraged him, and finally
l put some money in with his expert
ence.
HE hadn't got on very far in the
business before he thought of a
scheme that beats any Yankee idea I
ever heard of before. Of course he
buys his eggs here and there among
the farmers, and some of them are in
ferior goods that wouldn't stand ship
ment. To make sure of eggs that
would keep he bought half dozen in
cubators and began to hatch his eggs
just as if he was in the broiler or the
duck business on large scale. In this
way, if an egg had germ in it, he
knew it would not keep. You see, it is
case where the bad eggs are the good
ones. If an egg viii hatch it will not
keep. If it is infertile and will not
hatch it will keep indefinitely, espe-
cially in cool climate. The expert
ment has proved a great success. We
now have 80 40O-egg incubators run
ming day and night Matching out in
fertile eggs, you might say. The more
infertile or bad eggs we get the hap
pier we are. The chicks we hatch are
simply q byproduct, like gas tar or
crude petroleum. We get good prices
for them, but the thing we are really
after is the greatest quantity of infer
tile eggs. These we are now selling at
Dawson for $4.75 a dozen. Last fall
our first shipment brought nine dol
lars a dozen at wholesale. We do not
have to run the machines full three
weeks on our eggs. In seven days a
fertile egg will begin to terminate,
and with what is called an egg tester
It is an easy matter to tell the hatch
able from the infertile or nonhatcha-
BILE ones. Thus our capacity is enor-
nous. The fertile eggs are taken out
as soon as found and consolidated in
machines by themselves and allowed
to run their full time of three weeks.
1t is an ingenious and very profitable
business. The eggs are far superior
in quality to those you have here in
Washington by the cold storage plan.
They have good flavor and are dfstin-
guishable from the freshest of eggs
only by experts. "-Washington Star.