17 



REMOVAL OF Male Birds After the Breeding Season. 



It is remarkable how few farmers appreciate the importance of infer- 

 tility in market eggs. To make provision for the infertility of 

 an egg does not necessarily guarantee the absolute preservation of its 

 good quality; but such an egg, being free of the active germ cell, wiM 

 not, under ordinary storage conditions, deteriorate seriously. The great 

 bulk of eggs which are spoiled for purposes of consumption are the fertile 

 eggs, which, having been subjected to heat above seventy degrees, undergo 

 partial incubation. If the heat is continuous and strong enough, the 

 development of the chick will continue; but if it ceases or is intermittent, 

 putrefaction at once sets in and the eggs become bad. Such eggs are 

 known to the trade as " blood rings," " floats," " heavy floats," or " rots," 

 depending upon the degree of deterioration they have undergone. Few 

 farmers have any knowledge of these facts, and consequently practically 

 none have made any effort to ensure infertility. They seem to have the 

 erroneous impression that the presence of the male bird is essential to 

 the production of a maximum number of eggs; but it has been proved 

 beyond all question of doubt that such an arrangement is not necessary, 

 and for the reasons set forth, is highly undesirable. 



REVIEW OF PRESENT METHODS, OF MARKETING EGGS 



AND CONSEQUENT LOSSES. 



The Flat Rate System and the Country Merchant. 



The farmer is not the only one accountable for the heavy shrinkage 

 in market eggs. Along the course of trade through which eggs pass, there 

 are other handlers commonly known as " middlemen," with whom should 

 be placed much of the responsibility. This is true because of the system 

 which they invariably employ in the purchase of the farmers' eggs. This 

 system is known as the " case count," or " flat rate " system, and consists 

 of paying one common price for all eggs. 



The country merchant, who is usually the first to receive the farmer's 

 eggs, is in the habit of receiving weekly or semi-weekly quotations from 

 large egg dealers, and upon these quotations he bases his price. The evil 

 feature of this system is in the fact that no consideration whatever is' 

 given to the question of quality. The farmer who is in the habit of 

 supplying the merchant with an attractive lot of clean and strictly fresh 

 eggs receives no more in price than the farmer whose eggs are small, 

 soiled, stale, or part of which are bad and entirely unfit for consumption. 

 The result is that the farmer is in no way induced to properly care for 

 the product upon the farm. There is also held out to unscrupulous pro- 

 ducers the temptation to include in the case prepared for the market, eggs 

 that are known to be of questionable quality. Though the merchant 

 to whom such eggs are sold has absolute knowledge, or, at least, well- 

 founded suspicions, that the eggs brought in by the farmer are not fresh 

 as represented, he usually prefers to accept them without making the 

 slightest complaint. The merchant's policy is to cultivate as large a trade 

 as possible in eggs. He knows that by so doing other departments of his 



