The suburban citizen., 1900-12-29

vlded into classes. The cracked eggs
and dirty eggs are put aside.
Not an egg Of any sort Is wasted
The hopelessly bad eggs, not bought
up for campaigning purposes, are solo
for use in tanning processes. The dir
ties and the cracked eggs go to the
bakers, as do many Of the stale eggs.
Dirty and stale eggs are also sold &c
the small dealers in the poor quarters
of the city, where the trade cannot az
ford high prices. The best retail deal.
ers Of the city buy only the best Sc.
Ieoted or mixed eggs. One New Yorb
grocery firm has bought $4,000 WORTH
of first grade eggs this month and
doesn't consider it a big month either
The country is practically cleared
Of fresh eggs now; and the supply will
be small from this time until March
or April, but millions Of eggs are
packed away in the storage houses
and 1t woulu be indeed long winter
that could exhaust the supply. or
course, an egg does lose its flavor with
storage, but it doesn't spoil, in the or
binary acceptance Of that word. and
eggs are frequently kept ten months
without being unfit for use. At the
time of New Yorks last blizzard, when
entrance to the city was absolutely
blocked, the storage egg supply was
fairly cleaned out, and ten-month-old
eggs sold for price higher than that
ordinarily brought by fancy fresh
eggs.
1t is an established fact that storage
houses for eggs should be away from
the salt air, as the salt seems to af.
feet the eggs unfavorably. Nothing, is
fact, is more easily tainted than an
egg, though one might suppose that
it's shell would protect 1t. A Buffalo
dealer last season stored 1000 caset
of eggs, 800 in case, in the same
house with a consignment Of pears
and the eggs took on such 4 distinct
pear flavor that they were sold for 2
very small price in the New York
market.
There is money in the egg business
even for farmers who go into 1t In
small way; and almost every first
class city grocery has on its books
few local farmers who furnish small
supplies Of eggs superior in appearance
and stamped strictly fresh. Very often
these eggs are all the buyers fancy
paints them. Sometimes they are fake
pure and simple. The wholesale deal
ers nll know one small downtown frm
that buys ordinary eggs Of them at
fair price, stamps each one with
Long Island address and date and sells
them at a fancy price as strictly fresh
Long Island eggs.
Even the farmers themselves occa.
slonally yield to temptation. When
man is accustomed to providing sixty
dozen eggs a week at big price for Z
New York dealer and, on account Of
cold weather or natural cussedness
his hens fail him for a week or two
and furnish him only ten dozen
week, his integrity is sadly strained.
1t would be so exceedingly easy to run
up to New York, buy fifty dozen fresh
eggs at fair price, stamp them With
his stamp and send them off. No ono
would be hurt, the eggs would be gyAal
and his profits would be intact. Pre-.
sumably the ordinary farmer groans
"Retro Sathanas" and stands his loss
but there are others. That is why
wholesale dealers grin jovially when
one asks them about strictly fresh
eggs"
The United States export large guam
titles of eggs to the West Indies and
South America, and even send them
as far afield as South Africa, but
France, Russia, Belgium and Den
mark practically supply the European
market England, oddly enough, pro-
duces few eggs and imports yearly
more than 1,3OO,0OO,OOO from the CO.
tinent.-New York Sun.