New-York tribune., 1912-03-06
FRESH EGGS
Not Found in the Market, Says Pro-
ducer, Because They Can't Be Sold.

i o tne EultoI OF i ne l1lDune.
Sir: Your editorial of Saturday entitled
Eggs and Near Eggs" touches only the
periphery and not the core of the question.
Any one familiar with the egg market and
many who are not know the utter lack OF
system under which eggs are collected on
the average farm. Some member OF the
family when convenient, or oftener by ac-
cident, finds sCme eggs in manger, In
haymow. under the barn. No one knows
when they were laid, whether a hen has
been setting on them for a Week or
whether they were frozen. When ccnven-
lent these eggs are taken to the nearest
grocery. and when the grocer collects suffi-
cient to I'll the standard trade crate Of
thirty dozen they are shipped to a COM
mission house, where they pass through a
LerfunctCry process TO ascertain at what
particular stage Of decomposition they have
arrived. II not obviously too unfit for table
use. tney are sold 10 retail snops, which Sell
them as fresh laid"
AS I have one OF the largest and best
appointed egg farms In the world. where
eggs are collected twice each day, care
fully examined, washed and Immediately
shipped | am naturally interested In all
its bearings. and mainly out Of curiosity
/ asked my butcher why he did not buy his
eggs of me. His reply was that he could
not sell them. then asked if he consid-
cred his eggs fresh whereupon he held up
both hands above his head. saying: "Search
me-" He then went on TO say that 80 per
cent Of his orders came to him by the tele-
phone, and that II he should charge what
my eggs were worth all his accounts would
be Immediately closed This butcher Is
supplying the very cream OF that private
trade known as the -Four Hundred"
The trade and the hotels know very well
that it Is an impossibllity to obtain fresh
eggs at any price, except direct OF large
producers, who manage their affairs on
strictly commercial basis, an1 a few ana
a very few Of them at that. really make an
effort TO obtain the real thing; but these
gentlemen are naturally quite as keen at
driving a hard bargain as II they were
street pedlers. They know very weh that
the flood OF cold storage and more than IN
different Western eggs will always prevent
strictly fresh eggs from ever obtaining
proper quotation, and, as matter OF tacI
they never do attain to any proper dlIler-
,nca IN price above very Indifferent stock,
Tor the same reason that Western ohter'
which every well informed jalryman knows
* vastly Inferior to carefully made Eastern
butter. always pulls down the price OF
sweet end fresh Eastern butter until now II
f. a well recognized fact that there Is no
money I'm butter.
NJ surnIus eggs 90 TO ono OF the three
botcls NJ New York which Try TO have the
hi
boiling alone they require n regular supply
of forty dozen winter ana summer loi
breakfast. Do | get fair price Tor these
eggs. which, like Casar's wife must DC
bevond suspicion? Not by any means. MY
contract brings me trine over the highest
rr,ce quoted in The Daily Price Current
h,,, "a the real Simon Pure Is never by any
,,,,,,s ot any season, ever upon the gen
.rai market the result is that no rehaple
orotation for this strictly fresh egg ever
oc,,,rs ard SO II comes about that can
not get enough for my eggs to return me
,h. cost Of the chickens food. to say hoth-
iro about wages and invested capital
Nv interest I'm the egg market is' now
- nureiv incidental, as | founded my
,o,,,,rv departrnent. as I did my farm. lot
,bs n,,rnosc OF demonstrating some inter-
oe,,,o features Of breeding cattle and pros
hut az have some three thousand oiros,
,,oro are at certain seasons thousands OF
eggs collected each day. which must De uls-
nosed Of. at a profit II possible o. II n'''
at "A loss. -. A.. htgb
vo hear a great deal about the hisn
rr,ces Of farm products. but only those ""o
ore working along strictly business lines mes
raa,,,o what a perfect slaughter house the
New York market Is fer all farm products.
possibly when we get real pareeis PvS.
,,,cdo,,ed after that OF Great Britain Ine
ra,,n,er u. rr, and the producer may get nearer
.o,,sU .ons'n"r 70 their mutual ADVANTAGE but as
,oue'"c, ,oue "a bousekeepers care so little for
lonE long. a. ,resn article. so long as producers
ara ra' subject to the tender mercies OF Cneas
ord hotel stewards. matters VIII ,enl,r ,r,n,blo
they are. and pater tamilHs ""'
y. t,s eggs and at their price.
u WILLIAM HALL WALNEH'
,-,,v York. March 2, 1872