The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-09-04

men 1rult. MOI many years ago III
was proclaimed that process had
been discovered whereby fresh eggs
| could he manufactured like wooden
nutmegs, but these egg machinists
| met the same fate as the patent rain
| makers who went to the western rain
| looms to make thunderStorms to order.
| The hen lays the cold storage egg.
| however distant 1t seems to be re-
moved from its primordial ancestor.
In the cheap season huckstcrs gather
them from the farms; poultrymen
haul them to the railroad stations;
groccrymcn, who trade them in, de-
liver them {. o. b., and all together the
Grated eggs are freighted to wholesale
houses and the trust" Now. II these
millions Of eggs were all good or the
men who handle them were all careful
or honest the cold storage eggs would
be of better quality and the prejudice
against them not 50 great. But listen.
Farmers. as a rule, are not very par
ticular about eggs. Few Of them have
good henhouses and nesting places.
The result Is the hens hatch and lay
In any old place.
They lay in the haymow. next in
heat to hades on Il hot day: they drop
their eggs under the rOostS and in the
COW stables; they steal their nests
under the hogpens and in many other
places where heat and filth soon rob
them of their beauty and sweetness.
Eggs found in stolen nests are often
too old to vote. The farmer always
leaves nest egg to lure the speckled
hen back. 1t may be changed the next
day, or II may serve in its honorable
capacity for three months before 1t
finds its way to an cpicure's table in
the city as "frcsh stock laid while you
wait" How well we remember the
day on the farm when we found a
nest with ten dozens of eggs in the
corner of the haymow.
If one hen laid them all they were
the product of 1870 hard days work
that is, if she laid regularly every other
day, but the best type hen swcats to
lay 200 year
How we cxulted one day when we
spicd half bushcl Of eggs under the
old hogpcn.
We squeezed under and hauled them
out. and grandma sold them to the
huckster for 10 cents Il dozen. But,
whisper 1t softly. the hens had been
Matching and rehatchng under that
pigpcn through all the ages Of man.
You might think all the eggs shipped
from a modern poultry plant were
fresh Let me lift the lid. There are
Il great many CASTOR eggs ut poultry
plants. Some set as high rs 100000
eggs n Sca&rn. In Solnc seasons from
80 to GO pei cent do not hatch. After
The large iucihntors ar" running five
days the eggs are tested by passing
them before Il stron" light. All eggs
that do not have II bloody like spider
IN them are rejected This spider is
the live germ. and YOU can follow mp
its development till towar'l the twenty
first day. when YOU can see the chick
on wig@lc in the shell
On the fifteenth there is another test.
The eggs rejected are the following:
Clear Of infc.tilc. with Il red streak
or rupturcd blood vessel. Il black spot
or dead germ. cracked and rotten AZ
the end of the hat; II among those lcft
are the eggs with dead chicks in them
Now you cHr see how much latitude
a backlog in the egg business has for
trickcry.
The infcriiic eggs are clear. ana one
can hardly distinguish them from fresh
eggs. Bakers often use them i'm their
manufacture of wholesome cakes and
pastry. But some poultrymcn will mix
these rejected eggs with good stock
and sell them To wholesalers. and some
wholesalers will ship them to retailers
and storage companies. and then the.
20 to The hotels. boarding houses res
taurants and private families. an
that's where the "kirk" comes in.
GAMBLING EGGS. But let MS actn
ally follow these eggs into Il wholcsal,
house where they do an honest bust
ness. They are preparing eggs 70
storage Three or four carloads ar,
stacked around. and some have bcen
shipped clear from California; We
open Il crate of California goods. an
they are certainly crackcrja Jacks
white. beautiful eggs. superior in sizv
to the eastern White Lcghorn and
Mnorca. What fine stock they mus:
have in the state of orange groves an.;
giant rcdwOods.
We now go into the Gambling room,
which is pitch dark. The operator
turns on n light which is in box. A
hole about two-thlds the size of an
egg goes clear through the box. and
the strong light shines through these
holes. At each opening an employee
Is passing eggs before the light Be
fore he passes the egg it is tapped to
see if the shell is perfect All eggs
that are not clear. that are cracked or
have dirty shells are thrown out.
The soilci and cracked EGGS are sold
TO the bakers. canned. frozen or made
into egg powder. The bad cg-ss are
sold for the manufacture of mucilagc,
sbo"backug. dlsinfcctants. dyes. etc.
Most Of the cracked and soilcd eggs