The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1921-01-20

Mrs. Jones finds that she must pur
chase some eggs. Her desire Is for
eggs and nothing but eggs. "Are they
good and fresh?" she inquiries of the
retailer. Assured that they are. she
purchases a dozen of them and carries
them carefully home. But Mrs. Jones
may be shortly dlsillusioned. She finds
that the eggs are not only poor In
quality. but that among them a poten-
tial home-breaker may be lurking. She
makes rapid mental calculation.
Two bad eggs In dozen increases the
price of the ten good eggs She re-
solves that thereafter her family will
do without eggs.
Typical Of Many Cases.
The experience of Mrs. Jones is
typical of that of tens of thousands OF
housewives every day, say marketing
specialists of the bureau OF markets,
United States Department Of Agricul-
ture. High prices asked for fancy
eggs compel large majority Of house
wives In cities to purchase ordinary
eggs; but because the number Of bad
eggs In dozen of ordinary eggs may
be such as to make the price of the
remainder prohibitive, eggs are not
used as basic part Of the family diet.
The result is a decreased demand for
eggs, whereas the demand might be
increased were these housewives GER
tain of receiving good eggs every time
they made a purchase.
According to specialists OF the bu-
reau of markets, the bulk of the eggs
marketed In some markets are of or
dlnary quality. Moreover, many Of
these eggs pass the inspection tests
upon the merest margin of safety,
with the result that they may become
bad unless sold and used quickly. In
addition, enormous quantities of bad
and broken eggs constantly arrive at
markets. No figures are available to
show the precise loss, but the close of
the days business at any egg market
generally finds many cases of eggs
culled from the receipts that are to-
tally unfit for human consumption.
Besides the out-of-pocket cost that
this condition produces. transportation
space that is sorely needed in these
times is wasted and a food loss occa-
stoned that the bureau maintains could
be prevented by the use of proper pro-
duction. grading, packing and shipping
methods.
Bad and inferior eggs cost as much
money to produce and transport as do
good eggs, and when the loss on the
bad and inferior eggs Is added to the
cost OF the good eggs II often occurs
that the farmers entire profit is wiped
out. In any event It r>1uces the prof
Its on the entire shipiGent. A concrete
illustration OF slch a loss is n ship
ment of 80 dozen eggs recently re-
ceived by a Washington commission
firm. OF these eggs 1S% dozen were
condemned as unfit for food. Upon
an arbitrary basis OF 80 cents dozen
to cover the production and transpor-
tation costs on the entire shipment,
the fact that 20 per cent of the eggs
were condemned automatically In
creased these costs on the remainder
of the eggs 1914 cents dozen, or %
per cent. On this basis the shipper
was compelled to take an actual loss
on the entire shipment, for the eggs
marketed were not sufficient In quality
to command a price of 62h cents a
dozen.
Jeopards Fair Business Relations.
While, OF course. every shipment of
eggs Is not 20 per cent bad, the princi-
Pile In the foregoing illustration APP
| plies TO every instance where other
than perfectly sound eggs are shipped
TO market Inferior eggs are some
times included with good eggs, upon
the assumption that even small price
for them is better than nothing. This
is a fallacy, for even though the price
realized may pay the cost OF handling
and transportation, the practice
jeopardlzes the fair and above-board
business Relationship that should exist
between sellei and buyer.
The bureau of markets maintains n
special division with regard TO the
marketing of dairy products. Based
upon the actual experiences of thou
sands of dairy farmers throughout the
United States, careful studies OF
every phase of dairy products market
ing are made by this division and the
results used to help farmers solve
their marketing problems.
Solution OF Problem.
No matter how hopeless of solution
your marketing problems may seem,
call upon the bureau of markets. Ger
ainly ou' "' the experience of thou