The suburban citizen., 1902-03-01

ate away the slaves Of the barrels
which were used in the early days Of
egg preserving, and burned the flesh
Of those who handled the eggs in it,
the only effect 1t had on the eggs was
to harden the shell, close its pores and
make It absolutely impervious to the
air. AS long as that alright condition
prevailed the interior Of the egg, Of
course, remained unchanged, and the
egg was just as good a year after 1t
was taken from its bath as it was
when 1t came out Of 1t.
Barrels were after awhile aban-
doned for vats or slips as receptacles
for the brine, These were made of
brick or stone and lined with cement.
At first it was the farmer who lined
eggs. He constructed his vat in his
cellar. Then the man who made egg
raising a regular business took 1t up,
and his silos, of a capacity of a thou.
sand dozen eggs or more, became, next
to his hens, the chief appurtenances Of
his hennery. Ten years ago the coun.
try surrounding this city was thick
with mammoth egg silos, constructed
to supply our market with preserved
fresh eggs when the market ran shy
on the real thing. Those silos were
frequently forty feet square and sunk
into the earth to keep their contents
from freezing. LINED eggs became an
important article of export, and thou.
sands of barrels Of them were shipped
abroad annually. They were known in
foreign lands as Yankee winter eggs"
Germany stepped in and knocked this
trade in eggs oil to smithereens some
years ago, though, by discovering a
trick In lining eggs that maintained
the character OF the fresh egg so near
to what it was when the hen started
1t forth on its career that the American
lined egg could only play rather In
different second to the German. Ger
many not only cOppered foreign mar
kets with its lined fresh eggs, but
shipped 1t to our own home market un-
til we shut it out by the tariff and
saved our infant industry in mummi-
| ded fresh eggs.
"But the coming of compressed air
Into the problem of cold storage has
gradually taken the fresh egg away
from the embalming brine, and where
there were hundreds of dozens OF lined
eggs on the market ten years ago there
are not teEs Of dozens now. Cold stor-
ags keeps the eggs just as long, but
when they go out of that storage and
reach the prevailing temperature of
the consumers environment, 1t will be-
hoove the consumer not to hold them
long in idle dalliance, for they are not
of the embalmed sort, and the period
of their usefulness will be short when
change of air rouses them from the
paralyzing influence of the storage
vaults. A fresh egg six months old is
apt to have ways,
"The possibilities for speculation in
thus being able to keep eggs for an in
definite period in cold storage or by
embalming them in lime are apparent,
and it looks very much as IL advantage
was being taken Of them just about
now. AS for real, genuine fresh eggs
being any way in evidence In the mar
ket now, don't believe any can be
found. Yet you might visit every re-
tail grocery in this town to-day, If it
were possible, and every one Of them
would have baskets full of eggs Ia
beled and declared to be Fresh Laid
Long Island Eggs. There aren't hens
enough on all Of Long Island, every
one of them working not only regularly
every day, but overtime, to produce
one-tenth of the eggs that are thus on
sale as fresh Long Island eggs. And
that one-tenth wouldn't be apt to get
into the corner grocer's hands, any
how. 1t would so directly to hotels or
private families, Yet when you ask
your grocer If those eggs are really
and truly fresh laid eggs, and he an
swers you solemnly that they certainly
are, he isn't lying to you. No hen ever
yet laid a stale egg."-New York Sun.