Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-09-16
ENGLISH HENS LAY FOR WOUNDED


The National Egg Collection" Accum-
ulates / 1850, 900 Eggs in Week.
(London correspondence N. Z. Times.J
To accumulate 1,OOO,OOO fresh-laid
Ieggs in one week for wounded British
soldiers Ia hospital IN Great Britain
and France was the huge job under
taken last week by the National Egg
Collection, of which Queen Alexandra
is patron.
The projectors of the collection call
ed upon the British public FOR Volun-
tary contributions, urging that fresh
| laid eggs are urgently needed in the
/, hospitals and that they are hard to
get because of the excessive demand
upon the market.
Not only did they accomplish their
task, but their aim was exceeded,
instances, their equivalent in money.
This was the climax of forty weeks Of
work, during which 10,O00,000 fresh
lads" were accumulated by this ener-
getic adjunct to hospital activity.
Reducing it to money the National
Egg Collection since last November has
provided wounded soldiers with eggs
that, in the market, were they obtain
able, would cost $500, 600. The e1-
pense of handling this gigantic under
taking has been exactly IL IL per cent
of the aggregate contribution value, or
$50, 900, leaving a net value of $350,000
worth of eggs supplied to the soldiers
The work, increasingly going on
since last November, will be kept up
until the war is over
To get the 1,250,O0O fresh-1aid eggs
last week the collection, which em-
braces in its forces a score of prom1-
nent Enghshmen, conducted a cam
paign embracing, among other things,
letters spread broadcast throughout
Great Britain and posters pasted on
billboards everywhere. One poster
which became familiar in the, under
ground railroad stations in London and
on billboards along the country side
showed hen strutting proudly along
with cluster of chicks looking ON.
1t bore an inscription: "'Where. are
you going my pretty maid?' ITO lay
eggs for the wounded young Sjrs,' she
said"
In thetask of collecting the eggs the
1000 branches of the fund throughout
Great Britain, involving a staff of
$500 workers, speeded up their re-
sources to the top notch, and they had
a monumental job in taking the eggs
In, packing them, and sending them Oft
to the hospitals.
The eggs came from everywhere il
the British Isles AS it would have
been impossible to buy enough of the
frehs-laid eggs to make up the needed
million from the supply handled bv
the dealers, whose stock goes quickly
because of all the war and household
requirements, it became necessary for |
householders in the outlying commu-
mites or the country towns who have
chickens to send al 1.-The egg product |
they could spare.
The quick response from these |
householders amazed the projectors
In the first three days of the weeks
collection 100000 eggs had arrived at |
the various depots, and the workers |
were actually swamped. The govern
ment lends automobile 1orries to cart |
the eggs from the depots and put them |
on board trains. Fifty lorries were |
kept running night and day during the |
week of the record-breaking collection |
to convey the eggs.
The growth of the fresh-egg enter |
prise has been rather startling. The |
initial week of the campaign produced |
just twenty-six-eggs. The next weeks ]
grist was 1000 eggs, and the co1lec-
hons kept creeping up until they struck
an average of 100000 eggs a week.
It was partly to- test the sources of
prospective output that the projectors
hit upon the million-a-week idea. Now
they have found where, they can de-
pend upon a fairly consistent average
from individuals owning small hen
neries, and they expect that the yield