434 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



to their age. The jobber disposes of them to the retailer, who 

 holds them until bought by the consumer, or they may be placed 

 in storage to be held for later trade. They are usually candled 

 once or twice in transit and always before going into storage. 



With every precaution, it is readily seen that an egg is at 

 least two or three weeks old when it reaches the consumer. 

 When one appreciates the length of time it requires to place 

 eggs before the consumer he will realize the necessity on his 

 part of caring for the eggs in the best possible manner. The 

 shipper usually appreciates this necessity and hurries the eggs 

 to headquarters, where refrigerator cars, cold storage, etc., 

 check the further deterioration. Eggs do spoil. They do not 

 melt or sour, but they decay rapidly. An appreciation of this 

 fact will cause greater care in their handling. Government 

 experts tell us that a large percentage of the losses can be 

 traced back to improper handling on the farm. 



A large number of people even go so far as to sell eggs 

 whose quality is questionable, thinking that the loss is borne 

 by some other than the producer. There could be no more 

 serious mistake. The price of eggs is determined by their 

 quality when sent to the consumer. The purchaser, whether 

 a commission man or the country storekeeper, must buy eggs 

 at a lower price in order to come out even on the entire deal; 

 hence the continued practice of placing bad eggs on the market 

 results in an average low price for eggs. Figuring on the 

 seventeen per cent loss, it can readily be seen that if only good 

 eggs reached the egg buyer he could easily afford to pay a 

 higher average price than he does at present. 



Present Methods of Buying not Conducive to Production of 

 Better Quality. — The present method of handling eggs in a large 

 majority of cases, however, does not encourage the production 

 of good eggs, especially when purchased by the country store. 

 Often the storekeeper, in order to obtain the trade of the farmer, 

 pays a higher price for the eggs than he sells them for, many 

 times losing money on his egg transactions. He does this in 

 order to get the farmer to "take it out in trade" and marks his 

 goods up, thus making his profit on the goods he sells, not on 

 the eggs he buys. It is common practice for a grocer to have 

 two prices for eggs — so much "cash" or three or four cents per 

 dozen more "in trade." This works an injustice on other 

 customers, because the goods are marked up so that the grocer 

 can come out even or make a profit on his egg transactions. 



