Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-05-21

A Seattle broker has recently placed
orders with two Iowa egg-packing es-
adjustments for ffty-one carloads of
eggs, corsracting to pay for these the
price prevailing at the time of their de-
livery This means something like
$4,000 eggs, their total weight will be
3s6 tons, and If the selling price in
Iowa is twenty cents a dozen, the Seat
tie broker will pay $122,40 for the lot.
And these will not by any means con-
stitute the entire number of eggs that
will be consumed in that city during the
Pacifc-Yukon exposition, which
will be held from June 1 to October Is,
when hundreds of thousands of visitors
from all over the country will be there.
AS one part of Iowa alone furnishes
100000 eggs a year the Seattle de-
mand will not produce a dearth of eggs
in that state. In April a New York
firm ordered twenty carloads Of eggs
from Kansas. Greater New York con-
sumes 5000 cases of eggs a week. As
the number of eggs in a case is either
thirty-two or thirty-six dozen, this
means at least only $4,000 eggs day
for the city's tables, many hundreds not
being able to afford eggs. 1t is pre-
dicted by expert authorities that the
early crop will be short because far
seeing packers, anticipating a later
price of forty-five cents a dozen, and en-
countered by last seasons good prices,
are beginning to store eggs.
Few products have increased so rap
idly IN value as have eggs. Where the
1900 census showed a poultry and egg
valuation of something under $500, 0OO,-
600 the latest census of the bureau or
animal industry of the national depart
ment o3 agriculture shows that this val
uation has reached $600,O00,0O0. OF
this Kansas alone produced $4,000, 900
worth. The price in that time has gone
from eleven and half cents to eighteen
and a half. Eggs furnish over 3 per
cent of the total food of the populace,
and with every tuberculosis patient en-
couraged to take at least dozen day,
and every soda fountain mixing egg
drinks for every twentieth customer, the
demand for eggs will doubtless increase
TO a phenomenal degree this year Chem
lists show that 1t takes pound and a
quarter of beef worth at least twenty
five cents, to equal in nutrition five eggs
worth ten cents. On this basis the
housewife often pays two and a half
times as much for meal as she might
If she understood better the values Of
food.
According to the best authorities care
Of poultry for reproducing is most
remunerative occupation and the princl-
pal requisite on the part Of the person
who launches the enterprise is gooo
common sense. The average annual pro-
duction of eggs in the United States is
only sixty-five eggs to each hen, though
enterprising Maine hens have raised the
average for their state to 102. If the
poultry standard is raised among the
farmers, by means of study, the read
ing of literature, or the attendance of
lectures on the subject, there is no rea-
son, according to experts why the
American hen may not be brought to lay
200 eggs a year, and eggs OF large
size and good quality. Pullets are the
best layers, and all egg layers should
be killed when three and half years
old to make room for younger and bet
ter ones. Massachusetts, is trying to get
the legislature Of that state to appro-
pirate a sum of money for educational
work among poultry and egg-ralsers
Just as Iowa has done for dairy work
ers, $4,000 having been appropriated
for this purpose in that state
ed from the fact that eggs from the poor
est southern farms, chiefly from games
and Iamburgs weigh only nineteen anc
one-fifth ounces per dozen; from the poor
strains Of Leghorns that constitute the
chief poultry population of the Tennes'
see and Texas farmyards, the eggs weigl
two ounces more, while southern lowe
sends eggs from the pure bred farm
f1ocks that weight twenty-four ounces t'
the dozen. Selected brands of imported
Danish eggs-and the United States I'M
ports largely from Denmark-weigh
fraction under twenty-nine ounces to the
dozen.
II is in Denmark that the ideal method
of collecting and shipping eggs is found
There are $4,000 or more farmers en-
rolled in the Danish Egg association, ant
eggs are collected on the farms every
day or three times a week. Eggs IRON
each farm are marked with letters anC
numbers, so the goods of each consigno
is known at a glance. The eggs are
"candled" or examined under a stront
light to test their quality. If one ba'
egg is found in a farmers consignment
he is fined for the first Offense, and foi
the second offense in one year he is ex
| PEELED from the association, and mus
! thereafter get his eggs on the marke
through his own efforts.
| In the United Kingdom like efforts hav'
been made to protect the public In tn
matter of egg buying and at the SAM
time allow the producer to get goo'
value for the shipments. Over thirt!
branches or depots have been establish
| ed there so that eggs may be collected
when fresh and shipped at once. Compare
| this with the general method of tn
/ American farmer. As a rule eggs on tn
average farm are collected at uncertain
Intervals, some from nests where hen
have been sitting, and these are thel
! traded at the country store for such com
modities as the small farmer needs. Th'
country merchant takes his chances will
! the eggs, rather than lose a customer
and then ships the lot at small price t
! large city factor. There Gambling Il
generally resorted to in order that gooC
eggs may be placed on the market, bu
very generally the signs on the case
might be made to read as in the Bowerl
not long ago: Strictly Fresh Eggs,
| Fresh Eggs" "Eggs!'