The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-13
EGGs BY PARCEL POsT
A System of Marketing That Offers Possibilities of Better Prices for the Producer and Fresher Articles for the Consumer.

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 Washington, June 12.-That eggs can be marketed successfully by par eel post and that this method ire quently secures a better price for the producer and a fresher article for the consumer has now been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the experts In the U. s. Department of Agriculture The department conducted tests that covered a period of five months At the end of that period it came to the conclusion that the parcel post was of particular value to the man whose flock was too small or who lives too far rzfron express service to permit him to ship his eggs in the regular com nercial case which holds 30 dozen eggs
 In the course of these experiments the. department shipped 9,131 eggs in 466 lots Of these 327 or slightly less than S6 per cent were broken but only 209 or slightly less than 23 per cent were absolutely wasted. The oth- ers though broken, could still be used. The percentage Of nbreakage, moreover when the employees of the Post Office become more accustomed to handling such fragile matter. N
 That the eggs should be properly packed is of course essential This implies tines care and some expense and is one reason why no attempt should be made to market by parcel post any but the finest quality of eggs, for they alone will bring remunera- tive prices. Moreover, if the custo-
 ner who buys in small lots finds that any considerable proportion of his purchases is undesirable or even unattractive in appearances, he will. not trouble to ask for deductions on that account; he will simply discontin~ 
 fore, must see To it that all the eggs the postman delivers are what he rep resents them to be.
 < This can only be done by candling them. Candling, the process of testing eggs by passing light through them so as to reveal the condition of the contents,'' is omitted by many producers who rely on care in collect ing to eliminate all bad eggs. It is, however, impossible to avoid an oc-- casional accident and cand1ing is tKaer efore advisable as an extra pre- caution. A simple outf1t can be made out of small hand lamp and an or dinary pasteboard box sufficiently large to be placed over the lamp after the ends have been removed. without risk of fire, Tn order to supp ply air to the enclosed lamp, notches the box rests. A round hole is then cut in the box at the level Of the lamp flame and the candling done by hold ing each egg against this hole while the rest of the room is in darkness.l The light from the lamp reveals the contents of the egg and those that show any defect can be rejected.
 If possible. only infertile eggs should be sent to market Fertile eggs deteriorate rapidly in warm weather and are the cause of much loss A broody hen on the nest or accidental exposure to a high temperature may start inoubation and cause the egg to spoil and inJure the shippers repu- tation. It is advisable, therefore, to retain the fertile eggs for home use or dispose of them in some other way than through the p4rce1 post. This is also true of soiled eggs. Eggs should never be washed when intended for high class trade, since the process re- moves a natural uauci1aginous coat ing and opens the pores of the shell.
 After this thorough elinina&ion of the unfit, the eggs that remain should be carefully packed in a. container of corrugated pasteboard metal mood or other suitable material. The post office regulations require this con tainer to be so wrapped that nothing can escape from the package, and each egg in addition to be wrapped separ- ate1y in excelsior, cotton, or some such material. Any soft paper serves the purpose quite we'll As for the container itself, there are many kinds on the market and the Department of Agriculture investi gators have not att tempted to decide which is the best. Instead they refer inquirers to the va- rfous state experiment stations which have available information on this question.
 In packing eggs. it is well to sort them as far as is practicable accord ST7 fra< <sfz % fxea home use those which are irregular in shape. unusually long or thin shelled. Containers that have been badly stained by broken eggs should be replaced by new ones and the pack age wrapped as neatly as possible. In. short, every effort should be made to deliver as attractive a package as pos The extra expense will be little and the returns in increased trade great.
 The larger the shipments that the producer can arrange to make. the cheaper can he afford to sell his eggs. Within the first and second zones of the parcel post service, a package costs five cents for the first pound and only one cent for each additional pound Ordinarily eggs weighs about l 1-2 pounds a dozen, which with the additional weight of the wrapping and container, would make a package of q SSAcASAt Ss55S N~S4S4A. DSLsfSGl ItF0 ana three pounds. The postage on this would be seven cents. If another dozen eggs were included in the pack age the postage would not be more than nine cents, or four and one-half instead of seven cents a dozen eggs.
 To the value of the eggs and the cost of postage must be added the cost of the container and the wrap ping. For two dozen eggs this may be estimated at eight cents. With a. postage of nine cents, it would, there fore. cost T cents to market two dog en eggs. or eight and one-haIf cents a dozen. By shipping in 10-dozen lots, it is estimated that the marketing cost can be reduced to 4.7 cents a dozen. Where the container can be used more than once, this cost can of course be somewhat reduced. Large