The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-03-17

III AASott coo NbOp o ~ ~
worth $500, 900, 900 but, according to
of agriculture, the value Of u eggs
should be $780, O0, 900. Between the
hen and the consumer, there is a
waste of $500, 900, 900 annually. OF this
waste, $50, 600, 900 is due to needless
breakage Of eggs in transit from the
nest to the retailer. The balance,
$3.50. O00, 900, represents unnecessary
adding, spelling and deterioration of
good eggs due to bad handling.
Hen Is Careful.
The egg as the hen lays it is almost
invariably q good egg. But n out OF
every ten eggs which she lays for
market is broken in shipment. Three
out Of the remaining nine good eggs
are SO badly handled that they are
either stale or of a much lower market
grade by the time they are opened by
the housewife.
Uncle Sam. through his department.
of agriculture is tackling this problem
Of egg food waste in two practical
ways. Through the bureau Of animal
industry he is trying to teach people
how to raise more and bigger eggs n
also how to raise pullets at such times
and feed them in such ways that they
will lay in the fall after the hens have
stopped laying.
To Loosen Breakage.
The country gets its eggs from the
great central corn belt where the gray
hen does not have to scratch so hard
for her living. Egg production on the
east coast and on the Pacific coast
consists principally Of eggs raised for
individual home use or for the fancy
local trade. There are not nearly
enough left over to supply the cities
49, 4nIyon TLo apnrtor+ v,,n,l1y 4f
eggs along our coasts therefore must
come by rail considerable distances
from the central corn belt. In the past,
every mile the had to travel meant
broken eggs and the arrival of
"scrambles" in New York. Before
eggs were shipped in refrigerator cars
every mile Travelled through the sum-
mer heat meant good eggs deteriorat-
ing, 80 per CEN Of each car lot lowered
in value, and 6 per cent more consign-
ed to the dumping barges Of the coast
cities.
Record in Shocks.
The latest experiment undertaken
with the egg crates has been to place
delicate Instruments which record
shocks in such crates and ship them
across the country. At the end of the
Journey the instrument shows exactly
the force of the blows that the case
has undergone and consequently the
amount Of shock from which the eggs
have to be protected. AS fast as eX-
perience proves any device to be prac-
teal, the departments discoveries are
made common knowledge throughout
the egg-handling trade. Meanwhile,
the department is sending it's egg and
poultry demonstration car through the
corn belt and showing egg shippers all
the little improvements in egg grading,
Gambling and packing.
To Save $50, 100000 a Year.
If the hens laid eggs regularly all
the year round and the supply were
constant, the saving of eggs from the
tanneries and the dumps would not be
so complicated. It would largely be a
matter of teaching the farmers to
gather the eggs from the nests before
"a long hot day has had time to start
them by increase in temperature on
the downward road through blood
rings, spots, foaters, white rots, black
|rots, and, other downright rots. Then
the farmer would have to be taught,
after the eggs are gathered, to keep
them in a cool place and to keep them
cool and covered by a big umbrella on
the wagon on his trip to town.
After that the, e~gg-shipping mar in
the little railroad town would have
to learn to chill those eggs at once
chill them thoroughly, pack them in
proper cases and put them in a refrig-
orator car and see that they never
got above so degrees Fahrenheit until
delivered. Then, If there were not too
many delays and tn wholesale COM
mission man kept the eggs cold, and
Mrs. H~ousekeeper kept these widely
Travelled eggs in her refrigerator until
she brok them into the pudding or got
them ready for a ride on toast to the
breakfast table, father would not sniff
and say: II don't seem to. care for
eggs as much as / useter."
The Summer Waste.
But anyway you fix it-there will be
"a lot more eggs laid in summer than
people can use in summer and there
will be a lot fewer eggs laid in winter
than are needed by Uncle Sans egg
hungry family. Consequently a large
part of that 30 per cent vase results
in summer when eggs are plentiful and
50 cheap that folks don't bother much
about them. Here and there women
have long been experimenting with
ways Of keeping good eggs over some
covered them with water glass or lime
or parafffn. or did various other things
with them to make them keep. Some
had pretty fair uccess if they worked
with really fresh eggs that never had
had a chance to get hot nor cracked,
but none OF these plans were success
full in keeping over the millions of
dozens of eggs needed each winter
month by the big cities.
So Uncle Sam decided he would look
into the matter of keeping these eggs