No. 7. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 105 



affairs would indicate tliat certain obscure cliemical or perhaps 

 biological changes take place in eggs which have been stored, as in 

 the absence of any such changes it would be fair to assume that the 

 egg content should become thicker as it loses water upon evapora- 

 tion, while the facts show that the reverse condition is true. 



Upon opening and examining fresh and stored eggs, side by side, 

 it will at once be noticed that in a fresh egg the white possesses a 

 characteristic appearance and a consistency approaching a gelatin- 

 ous condition, and that the yolk rises prominently above the surafce 

 of the white when the contents are opened in a deep, narrow vessel, 

 A storage egg, on the other hand, shows a condition of greater 

 fluidity in the white with almost entire absence of the previously 

 mentioned gelatinous condition, and that when the egg is opened 

 into a deep, narrow vessel, the yolk sinks down in the white so that 

 the top is little, if ni all, above the surface. It will also be noted 

 that in the fresh egg the yolk membrane is so tough that separation 

 of the yolk from the white is readily effected, while in a storage egg 

 the yolk membrane is so tender that it ruptures upon the slightest 

 handling, and separation of the yolk from the wiiite is almost 

 impossible without contamination of one with the other. 



In wholesale quantities, eggs are handled and stored in crates 

 containing thirty dozen eacli. These crates are made ol white 

 odorless wood, and the partitions separating the individual eggs ».s 

 well as the layers, are of the kind of pasteboard known as straw- 

 board. 



It is well known that the porosity of the egg shell permits the 

 absorption of various odors by eggs which are stored near strougl,y 

 odorous substances. When shipped or stored they must be kept 

 away from anything which would be liable to communicate its odor 

 to them. Even the strawboard used for partitions is sometimes the 

 cause of an abnormal taste and odor in storage eggs. A cracked 

 egg will readily and quickly decompose and thus set up an active 

 infection of all the surrounding eggs in a crate if not immediately 

 removed. 



When eggs are stored in a damp place they soon acquire a musty 

 flavor and begin to mold. The ideal v/ay to preserve eggs would be 

 to lay them on trays of sand in a cold dry room, temperature about 

 33° F., and to turn the eggs over two or three times a week, to 

 prevent th(^ yolks from adhering to the shells, and thus starting a 

 spot, from which infection will rapidly proceed. Tinder present 

 trade conditions, however, eggs are stored for long periods in the 

 ordinary crates with practically no attention until they are removed 

 from storage, w^hen they are candled and classified according to 

 their condition, as good eggs, cracked eggs, rots and spots. 



The sale of good stored eggs and of cracked eggs, for food pur- 

 poses, is of course legitimate, when sold for precisely what the are, 

 and when there is no attemjjt to deceive the consumer, but the sale 

 and use for food purposes of rots and spots, as has been practiced in 

 the large cities (particularly in Philadelpliia and New York) for 

 many years, is both unwarranted and unjustifiable. There is a 

 legitimate use to which these decomposed and decomposing eggs 

 may bo put, and that is in the treatment of certain kinds of leather 

 in the tanning industry. 



The first handlers of the eggs who separate them by candling, 

 usnallv attempt to justify and protect themselves by having sten- 

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