No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 101 



lej^i.slation has been onaetcd relative to this subject. In this State, 

 though the Dairy Union has favored an educational movement to 

 improve the sanitary conditions of production, no laws dealing ex- 

 clusively with the subject have been enacted. The matter is one 

 deserving the thoughtful and unselfish consideration of both pro- 

 ducer and consumer. 



THE TRADE IN DECAYED EGGS KNOWN AS "ROTS" AND 

 "SPOTS" AND THEIR EMPLOYINIENT IN FOOD PRODUCTS. 



By Chaules U. LaWall and II. P. Cas.siuy. 



In view of the recent interest nianiiested in the subject of decayed 

 eggs and their use in food products, an attempt has been made to 

 collect information relative to the matter, much of which, while 

 well known to the members of the trade, has not previously appeared 

 in a published article. 



An egg, in the common acceptation of the term, is the ovum of 

 the feathered biped known as the domestic hen, a member of the 

 gallinaceous family, and undoubtedly derived by domestication from 

 the jungle fowl, Gallus bankivus of India. It is termed fertile, or 

 infertile, according to whether or not it contains an embryo. 



That the egg of the hen is meant when no qualifying term has 

 been used has been legally decided in a case in one of the Western 

 States, where duck eggs had been supplied when eggs were or- 

 dered, and in which a law suit followed a refusal to accept and pay 

 for the eggs. The decision of the judge stated that if any other 

 interpretation were allowed than that of the hen's egg, where the 

 word egg had no qualifying term, it v/ould be possible to substi- 

 tute canary bird or pigeon eggs, or any other egg, and that there 

 would be no protection to the dealer or consumer in case of con- 

 tracts made in advance. 



From time immemorial eggs have been used for food purposes 

 by man and the trade in eggs in civilized countries has assumed 

 enormous proportions since the development of rapid transportation 

 and cold storage. 



The egg consists of a number of complex organic constituents, 

 but as popularly considered, it may be divided into three portions, 

 i. e., shell, egg white (generally called the albumen of the egg), and 

 egg yolk. The average weight of a hen's egg is a little over two 

 ounces, of which one-tenth is the weight of the shell, the latter 

 consisting almost entirely of calcium carbonate, identical in com- 

 position with chalk. Of the remainder of the egg, or of the whole 

 substance of the egg as commonly used, two-thirds is albumen or 

 white and one-third is yolk. It is commonly supposed, and is a 

 popular error, that the white of the egg is the most nutritious por- 

 tion, but the following figures, showing the percentage composition 

 of the egg, will illustrate the incorrectness of this view: 



