The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-04-20
HENS AND OTHER EGGS.
Some People Like Them Fresh and
Some Don't

|
Some People Like Them Fresh ant
Some Don't.
Wherever wild birds eggs are fount
in quantities they are substituted fol
hens eggs to large extent, being
cheaper. On the eastern shore of Vir
ginia eggs of the laughing gull are com
monty eaten, and a few years ago the
eggs of terms and herons were gathered
in immense numbers along the coast O.
Texas. Rookeries of sea birds, where
accessible, are commonly pillaged, the
most notable instance in point being
observed on the Farallone Islands, thir-
| ty miles from San Francisco. These
volcanic islets, rocky and precipitous
are the hatnt Of myriads of INJURIES
puffins, gulls and cormorants, and eve
nv summer the eggs of the INJURIES in
particular are sought by semi-piratica
| "eggers." No fewer than one hundred
| and fifty thousand dozen of them are
collected annually and sent to Sar
Francisco, where they fetch twenty
cents a dozen at retail. A murre's ege
has about twice the capacity of hens
egg, and is remarkably well favored
1t is laid on the bare rock, the mother
bird building no nest, and Is sharply
, pointed at one end, a provision of ma
| ture to prevent it from rolling off. II
, it is disturbed it rolls around as on a
pivot.
OF course, many kinds of eggs are
eaten other than those of birds Turtle
eggs are highly priced wherever they
are abundant, and terrapin eggs are
often served with the flesh. Eggs of al
ligators and crocodles (Which look al
most exactly like goose eggs, being the
same size and shape, with hard shells)
are considered a delicacy in some parts
of the world. Shad doe Is familiar
example Of the use Of fish eggs as food,
and cavaire Is simply sturgeon segg
preserved Some savages eat the eggs
of certain insects. In the Malay archi-
pelago salted ducks eggs are a favor
lite article of diet. The new laid eggs
are packed for two or three weeks in a
mixture of clay, brick dust and salt, af-
ter which they are eaten hard boiled.
Ducks eggs in China are buried in the
ground for a year and permitted to I'M
dergo partial decomposition, being dug
I'D for market at the end of that time.
Many such eggs are imported into this
country for use of pigstiled epicures,
and a. sample recently examined in San
Francisco by a government expert
seemed to be covered with hardened
clay. When broken 1T was found to
contain a partly developed duckling,
but the Chinese merchant said that 1t
was in proper condition.
a
and Keep them fresh by coating them
with mud. By the Alaskan Esquimau,
the eggs of wild fowl are preserved in
walrus oil for sale to the whites, but for
their own use any old egg will do, and
an added egg is to them tidbit. I'M
mense quantities of hens eggs are
shipped from Italy to England for pas
try, with shells removed and packed in
air-tight vessels, each containing the
whites and yolks of one thousand eggs.
This method does away with risk of
breakage, but care has to be taken
that all the eggs used are fresh, mas
much as one bad one will faint all the
rest in a receptacle.
Most Of these facts are brought out in
bulletin which will be published by
the Department of Agriculture about
two weeks hence. 1t is from the pen of
DR.. c. Ford Langworthy, who speaks
incidentally of the danger of disease
infection through the medium of hens
eggs in cases where attention is not
paid to cleanliness in the hen house and
chicken yard. The shell of an egg has
minute pores, through which germs can
enter, and in this way typhoid or other
pathogenic bacteria may be communi-
Gated to the unsuspecting consumer.
An egg shell is provided with a natural
varni<h, which binders the intrusion of
such harmful organisms to some extent,
but it is very important to keep the lay
ing birds in quarters that are frequently
whitewashed and otherwise made SAM
tary.
Recently special investigation of the
makeup of the white of an egg was
conducted at the agricultural expert
ment station in Connecticut, with the
result that this substance was found to-
mainly of four different kinds
of albumen. 1t also holds some sui
phur. which stains silver teaspoons.
The yoik os much more complicated.
containing among other things phos-
phorus, potassium, magnesium and iron.
When the egg becomes rotten the phos-
phorus forms phosphuretted hydrogen,
and the sulphur goes to make sulphide