The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-01-26
EGGS STAPLE ONCE MORE.
History of the Rise and Fall of an I'm
portant Food.

The poached egg is once more a sta
pie on the tables of Topeka hotels and
boarding houses. 1t was scarce for
some time, but within the past week it
has returned in all its glory-if it has
any glory. The reason for this is a
sudden slump in the egg market. Ten
days ago the product of the Kansas hen
was bringing 20 and % cents in the
open market; now any amount of omelet
timber can be had for little more than
half that. For this reason this story
might be called THE Fall of the Egg,
or, The Cold Storage Mans Lament"
A year ago the price of eggs was
soaring The winter began early and
the hen went on a strike about Thanks
giving time. Eggs fingered about the
quarter mark for a time, and then
climbed past 80 cents, up to 35, and in
the large cities the price went nearly to
so cents a dozen. The cold storage
houses which had a supply on hand
when the rise came reaped a fortune.
Some firms made from 100 to 200 per
cent on their investments.
This year every body who dealt in
eggs was crazy to get rich off them
except the original producers, the hens.
Early in the summer the cold storage
men began to look forward to high
prices again this winter, and they COM
menced buying eggs for storage. All
summer they kept it up, and as a re-
suit it is estimated that there were l.
100000 cases of eggs in cold storage in
the O1lIeu states DV the close OIL the
year. This means IS million dozen of
eggs, or enough to make an omelet as
big as a township. A large proportion
of these eggs were the product of the
Kansas hen. Several cold storage
plants in Kansas loaded up heavily on
eggs. Some of them had from $4,000 to
100000 dozens in cold storage two
months back, but a number have un-
loaded ConcordiS- house, one at Sa-
lima and another at FoTN Scott shipped
a whole train load of eggs east during
the late fall. But the great majority
of cold storage eggs were still being
held for higher prices when the new
year was ushered in.
Then the farmer thought he ought to
profit a little by the expected increase,
and as soon as the weather got cool i'll
the fall he began to pack" eggs. This
had a tendency to keep the price up all
during the fall and many a farmer
family has been hiding away eggs as
industriously as a small boy the week
before Easter.
But all this time the hen has been
working steadily. She appears to have
heard of the prosperity which is every
| where and she has seen no necessity for
working short hours or laying off for
| long at a time-in fact, all of her lay
ing has been laying eggs. The weather
| has been mild all winter and she has
! had a chance to show what she can do
/ and Notwithstanding the great demand
! for her product among the cold Stor-
age men, she has been able to supply il
and still keep the price from soaring tc
| any great extent.
Within the last ten days people who
have been boarding eggs have begun tC
| let loose of them. When the price
| reached 20 cents thew were afraid II
might not get higher and the packed
! eggs found their way to the market
| Then the cold storage men began to gel
| worried and now some of them are put
! ting their eggs on the market regard.
] 7rc-- rf -
| some cold storage houses further cas-
| are selling eggs at 8 cents for which
| they paid II cents during the fall
| Thsse reason combined are why tn,
! city man can afford to eat all the egg,
he wants in the dead of winter 1t /.
good for the man who likes them, but i