The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-11-25
Marketing Strictly Fancy
Eggs to Particular BUYERS
Careful Grading and At.
tractive Packing Important
Factor of Sale.

| The first step in dcvelopin. a good
| itself This should mean a general
cleanup Of the quarters, particularly
the nests. and in supplying the latter
with an abundance of clean straw or
other nesting material
! The next step Is frequent gathering
of the eggs and storing them in a clean,
| cool place until marketed. To 6e sure
of freshness the eggs should be gath
cred at least twice a day and even
oftener in extremely hot or cold wealth
or. Most poultry raisers are careful
to gather their eggs frequently in hot
weather, but rather neglectful in cold
weather, thinking that so long as the
eggs are not frozen badly enough to
crack them open that they are not
! harmed This is false idea, for even
slight freezing will destroy an eggs
freshness. An egg that has been slight
~ frozen will appear much like u stale
egg when opened. being rather watcry
and it will have a flat taste Frequent
gathering is as important in winter as
in summer
Grading Of Prime Importance.
Next in importance comes grading.
an absolutely necessary work if one
would secure and hold worthwhile
trade. Grading usually conveys the
idea of color alone, whereas true grad
iy,t, ,,,I,,
and freshness.
In grading for color. the eggs should
be separated into three lots. the abso-
lutely whiteshelled eggs. those with
brown shells, and then the speckled and
off color ones. The grower will come
nearer to having a uniform color of
egg if he adopts one breed of fowls
instead of a mongrel flock AS an in
stance, we obtain the whiteshelled egg
from the LeEhorn. brown eggs from
the Rocks and from the Wyandotte the
specklcd egg.
The matter of which is the best color
depends entirely upon the particular
market supplied. Some people favor
the white egg, others believe the
brown shelled egg is superior.
That One Small Egg.
The next step in grading is size
which is fully as important as color.
Nothing detracts more from price than
to have one or two small eggs in ii
layer. One small egg in package or
few distributed through a crate. will
lower the price several cents a dozen
in the wholesale market. In the case of
tho private customer, the one small
egg to the dozen is not fair deal and
usually makes the customer feel that
he has been cheated. Eggs of large
size generally bring more than small
ones, but the important thing in grad
ing is not SO much the size of the eggs
as their uniformity.
A really fresh egg should not he over
"A week old when II reaches the con
sumner The egg of the day is the -
hour egg" The demand for this "A
hour egg has given the producer a
chance to make a premium on his prod
ucts.
In large cities there is always Il ready
market for the well graded. 24-hour
egg at a premium from 10 to Il cents a
dozen. To command such "a market
eggs must be well graded, attractively
packed and shipped daily as gathered
Give Eggs a Trade Mark.
One of the greatest helps in market
ing an extra fine grade of eggs at IA
premium is the practice of marking
each egg with Il small rubber stamp.
giving the name of the farm or grade
OF eggs and the date laid. In fact,
this custom has Become so widespread
with producers of o4-hour eggs that
patrons of our best hotels and rcstau-
rants will not accept an egg as the
genuine 24-hour. article unless it is
SO marked.
For the big shipper there is no better
package than the standard 30 dozen
crate,6r the half-crate of Is dozens At
Effectiveness can be added if heavy re-
turnable egg crates. marked with the
farms name. are used instead of the
easily broken free crates commonly
used for all grades of eggs.
For the small producer depending
upon parcelpost trade there are nu-
merous reliable packages on the market
made especially for such trade Such
packages topped off with an attrac-
tive seal and printed guarantee label
far excel any home made eontrivanee,
and are practically guarantee of safe
arrival to the customer.
All packages or crates should be
sealed SO the customer feels assured
the product has not been tempered
with in transit.
The development of a hotel or store
trade for large quantities of fine eggs
must depend almost entirely upon per-
sonal solicitation. However. if one
really has the goods to offer. there will
be little trouble experienced in finding
a ready ma rket.
parcel post trade can be developed
in several ways: by personal solicita-
ton or by the insertion of a small ad-
yertsciQept in the daily papers. IA ma
/ ff$tfy.S ~ f1teanlfrS. rs,tc -.