The suburban citizen., 1900-12-29
EGG BUSINESS ODDITIES
THE SORTING AND CLASSIFYING A
COMPLICATED PERFORMANCE.

Kept Long in Cold Storage So Tempta-
tions of Farmers.
A cackle of relief and conscious vlr.
tue is going up from conscientious
hens, all over the country. Their busy
season Is practically ended and they
have beaten all previous records.
The American hen isn't properly up
preciated by her average fellow eoun-
tryman. He insists upon regarding
her as an Individual, and doesn't real
lie what a power Of organized labor
she represents. At n rough estimate,
there are about 350,OOO,OOO chickens In
the United States. They produce each
/ year something like 14,000,000, 900
eggs, which represent 100000. Be
sides, S1SO,00OOOO worth Of poultry is
eaten in the country during a year, and
the value of the living hens, at thlr-
| ty cents apiece, is figured at S150,000,-
900. SO the hen stands for about S455,.
100000 In the yearly economics Of the
United States, and it keeps her hust.
ling to live up to her reputation. 1t
is enough to daunt even a Black Min
orca to reflect when the spring days
come that she and her fellows must
start in and outdo the iron industry,
the coal industry, the wheat crops and
the corn crop. incidentally soaring
more than S1,0OO0OO ahead Of the
total value of the cows of the country
and their produce.
However, she sees her duty and she
does it. The bulk of her work, so far
as the eggs are concerned, is done in
the spring and early summer, thougO
the hens keep up a fairly good pace
until November and are not actually
! daunted until the severe cold weather
and storms arrive. The supply and the
price Of eggs depend entirely upon that
unknown quantity, the weather. Such
an episode as the egg famine Of earli-
er times is never known in this day
Of cold storage and refrigerating ia.
cilities. but long winter means n de-
cided scarcity Of fresh eggs and o
jump in the prices of stored eggs.
The egg business has been revolu
tionized in very recent years and its
development has been marvellous. 4
comparatively short time ago, the mar
ket depended upon local farmers and
upon Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and
Iowa for its egg supply, and the great
Southwest had no finger in the pie; but
the improvements in railroad facilities
and refrigeration have changed all
that, and now Kansas, Nebraska and
Missouri are sending out enormous
quantities of eggs. The South, too.
has taken up the industry. Iowa is
still, perhaps, the heaviest producer,
but Michigan eggs are said by experts
to have the finest flavor, the difference
being, doubtless, the effect Of the sand
and lime in the soil.
Poultry farmers to-day are showing
a tendency to eonfne themselves TO
some one breed Of hens, but the merit
of this measure lies not in superior
flavor but in the uniform size and color
of the eggs. Those questions Of size
and color cut an important figure IN
the egg trade, and though the dealers
soy scornfully that their concessions TO
public idlosyncrasles are all foolish.
ness, they make the concessions just
the same. The ordinary buyer abso-
lutely refuses to put aside a prejudice
in favor Of eggs uniform in size and
color. The grocer cannot sell mixed
eggs, however fresh they may be, Mt
n fancy price, so the wholesale dealers
sort out the eggs, tack an extra price
to those that are uniform, and every
body is happy. There are local preju-
dices in this regard as well as uniVer-
sal ones. Every dealer the country
over knows that fancy sorted eggs
to find favor in Boston. must be Of q
warm brown color, and he knows well
that New Workers will not pay fancy
price for brown eggs but demand as.
sorted whites.
This sorting and classifying Of eggs Is
a complicated performance. Sometimes
It is done before shipping More often
II Is done in the wholesale houses Ol
storage warehouses. First the eggs
are candled and sorted according to
their degree Of freshness. In the old
days this was done by passing the eggs
before a candle flame in a dark room
but Gambling is now misnomer, tol
the eggs are held before a powerfr
electric light hooded in tin, so thai
the light escapes only through one
small aperture. An expert GAMBLER
needs long training, and the work Is
tedious and trying, though old cand
lers who have been at the trade fol
many years pooh-pooh the idea th6'
the work is disastrous to the eyes. Tn
Gambling room is a picturesque place
with its inly gloom, its high lights OF
the faces Of the workers and the glow
ing little ovals of warm color that arr
swiftly passed before the ray of ligh
and laid aside. The incidental smells
are more than picturesque but a disin
fectant thrown in the air quickly kill
the odor Of the bad eggs, and the work
ers says that they are so used to tn
odor that they really do not mind 1t.
The Gamblers in one Of New York
largest wholesale egg houses get 81