Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1902-03-05
THAT made 100000 600 ercs. The /
exact figures for the Department Of
Agriculture in 1900 are 10000, 524, 1854.
This doesn't count those consumed be-

udl Luuue lO,OOu,UuO,UUU eggs. L ne
exact figures for the Department of
Agriculture in 1900 are 10000, 524, 1854.
This doesn't count those consumed be-
fore getting to market.
If everybody in the United States,
under radical system of communis.
tic distribution, were to get his fair
share of chickens, each person would
get three of the birds and lions
share Of the fourth. He would get
3.72 chickens. In the whole Of the
year, did you eat 1873 eggs? That was
the figure for the average American.
The lowest figure for eggs was 1917
cents dozen in 1900. That was the
minimum market price for exports.
Eggs are light affairs. weighing only
about an ounce and half. Minorca
eggs are the heaviest, being about five
to the pound. While Wyandotte and
Brahma eggs run seven or eight to the
pound. Probably all the eggs laid in the
United States last year weighed about
G53. 900 tons. This is about four times
the total tonnage of the American navy,
counting in even older ships.
Could Smash the Navy.
Naval ships are tremendously heavy
for their bulk, While eggs are uncom-
monty light. Perhaps battleships weigh
fifty or sixty times as much per cubic
inch as eggs. So it can easily be seen
that If all the eggs of the country We're
rolled together into one it would make
fairly stable affair. Say, an egg
about 100 miles long and proportioned
like other eggs.
All the hens in the country, If rolled
together, would make fine, handsome
bird weighing just about a million tons.
Hens average about eight pounds
apiece. The figure varies both with the
individual and the breed, which weigh
us follows:
Pounds. Pounds.
Wyandottes 49,. .6la Cochins ...... 81.
Plymouth Rocks.7E Minorcas 49,. .Glh
Jersey Blues. Hamburgs .GM
Brahmas .......9h
Brahmas and Plymouth Rocks are the
most profitable and the most plentiful.
Full-grown hens are supposed to stand
two feet high. BOOSTERS grow little
more.
Brahmas, besides having the heaviest
eggs and being equally with the Plym-
outh Rocks the most profitable, and
therefore the most popular breed, are
nlso the biggest. Their standard meas
urement is twenty-siX inches. and some
of them get much bigger. A few look
I, 1, r.,
from the ground.
The Faithful Hen.
On account of the faithfulness and in
dustry of the American hens during the
last decade, the American egg peril Is
threatening Europe. In 1890 the eggs
exported from this country were rot
noticeable from the point of view of The
quantity, though their beauty and gen
aral excellence was, of course, the same
And in that year the people of this
country were forced to import 9G,OOO.-
600 eggs for their breakfast tables.
Ten years later the Imports had drop
ped off 94,500,0000 down to 100000.
Those came in almost entirely across
the Canadian and Mexican borders
when there happened to be temporary
scarcity on the American side.
The exports. on the other hand.
jumped from n trace in 1890 to 10000.
600 in 1900. The change is largely due
to the perfecting of the cold-storage
process for eggs, and took place almost
entirely In the last half of the decade,
lS90-19O0. Another tremendous gain ap-
pears probable for the current decade.
The American hen is bird.