The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-05-18
The American Egg Trade
BY FREDERIC J. HAskiN

A Seattle broker has recently placed
orders with two Iowa egg-packing es-
Establishments for fifty-one carloads OF
eggs, contracting to pay for these the
price prevailing at the time Of their d e
livery. This means something like I
$4,000 eggs, their total weight will
be 336 tons, and if the selling price III
Iowa is 20 cents a dozen, the Seattle
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 large city
during the Alaska-Pacific-Y Yukon Ex-
position which will be held from June
l to October Is, when hundreds OF
thousands of visitors from all over the
country will be there.
AS one part Of Iowa alone furnishes
13,0OO,O 600 eggs a year, the Seattle de
mand Will not produce 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
thirty-two or thirty-six dozen. this
means at least only 494, 600 eggs a day
for the city's tables, many hundreds
not being able to afford eggs. 1t is
predicted by expert authorities that
the early crop Will be short because
far-seeing packers, anticipating later
price OF IS cents q dozen. and encOur-
aged 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 $780,
600. 600, the latest census of the Bu-
Teau OF Animal Industry of the ma
tiOnal Department of Agriculture
shows that this valuation has reached
s600,000,000. Of this Kansas alone
produced $10,000,000 worth. The price
in that time has gone from II IL
cents to Is Il cents Eggs furnish
over per cent of the total food of
the populace, and with every tubercu-
losis patient encouraged to take at
least a dozen q day, and every soda
fountain mixing egg drinks for every
eggs will doubtless increase to q phe-
nOmena1 degree this year. Chemists
show that it takes pound and a quar-
ter Of beef, worth at least % cents, %
equal in nutrition five eggs, worth 10
cents. On this basis the housewife
often pays two and a half times as
much for a meal IS she might if she
understood better the values Of food.
According to the best authorities
care of poultry for egg producing is a
principal requisite on the part of the
person who launches the enterprise is
good common sense. The average an"
nual production OF eggs in the United
States is only siXty-fiye 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 reading of literature, or the
attendance Of lectures on the subject,
there is no reason, according to eX-
perts, why the American hen may not
be brought to lay 200 eggs a year, and
eggs of a large size and good quality
Pullets are the best layers, and all egg
layers should be killed when three and
a half years old TO make room for
younger and better ones. MaSSa chu-
sets is trying to get the Legislature
of that State to appropriate a sum OF
money for educational work among
poultry and egg raisers. Just as loW3
has done for dairy workers, $l0,ooo
having been appropriated for this pur-
pose in that State.
That the breed can be improved is
noted from the fact that eggs from the
poorest Southern farms, chiefly from
games and Hamburgers, weigh oa'y
nineteen and One-flfth ounces per
dozen; form Of poor strains OF Leg
horns that constitute the chief poui-
try population Of the Tennessee ana
Texas farmyards. the eggs weigh two
ounces from the pure bred farm flocks
that weigh tWenty-fOur ounces to the
dozen Selected brands Of imported
Danish eggs-and the United States
imports largely from Denmark-
weigh fraction under tWenty-nlne
ounces to the dozen.
1t is in Denmark that the ldeal
method of collecting and shipping
eggs is found. There are $4,000 or
more farmers enrolled in the Danlsn
Egg Association, and eggs are COZ
1ected on the farms every day or three
times week. Eggs from each iarnl
are marked with letters and numbers
hof no Of