INCREASED EGG PRODUCTION IN ENGLAND. 



t6.; 



All these prices are above French prices, 

 the winter ones far above them ; and this 

 market has grown up in face of all the foreign 

 competition. We are told that the market is 

 steadily growing, and that prices on the whole 

 tend to increase rather than diminish, but that 

 the greatest difficulty is to get absolutely reli- 

 able quality. JMany of the early consigners of 

 these eggs would hold them back, say in 

 .September, to get October prices, and worse. 

 Very drastic measures had to be taken with 

 some, and these practices cramp and check the 

 demand and sale even now. It is essential, for 

 a trade at " new-laid " prices to grow, that the 

 eggs be sent regularly three times a week, or at 

 the outside twice, and all new-laid since the last 

 day of shipment down to date. Of course, 

 such a market might be occasionally glutted, 

 as any market can, by some accidental rush of 

 supply but the steady market is groitnug for 

 such goods, which can never be supplied by 

 foreigners. 



The general course of the egg trade will 

 now be quite clear. It is beyond doubt that 

 the demand for eggs as food in England has 

 lately increased beyond all calcu- 

 British lation, and beyond any prospect 



Supply. of home supply until quite recently. 



Cycling alone has done much ; tlie 

 growth of town populations has done more, as 

 Mr. Edward Brown has repeatedly pointed out. 

 The dietetic value of eggs is appreciated as it 

 was not before, and the relish for such light 

 food is extending. But meantime the British 

 producer has not been standing still : he is 

 selling many times more eggs than he ever did 

 before, and yet getting better prices for them, 

 not worse. Besides those sent to market, 

 thousands are sent in smaller packages to 

 private customers, and many leading railways 

 now have special terms by which such produce 

 can be sent up by passenger trains, provided 

 it is packed in boxes which can be piled on 

 each other. The Great Eastern Railway 

 charges 4d. for 20 lbs., the Great Northern 

 6d. for 20 lbs, and is. for 50 lbs., from any 

 station on their systems to London. The in- 

 crease in the home egg-trade is simply incal- 

 culable ; and it is obvious that, whilst this 

 supply has been superseding the best and 

 highest-priced of the French eggs, the Russian 

 supply has been affecting the lower grades, but 

 that in the main the home producer need have 

 no fear of holding his own in face of the 

 enormous demand for a good article, now 

 really beginning to be appreciated.' 



There are still difficulties to be overcome. 

 Eo-crs in summer fetch very low rates in manv 



country districts, because thrown upon a bad 

 market, and also because kept till stale. The 

 egg once stored a week or more competes only 

 with the foreign article, and summer is always 

 the worst time to sell. There is also, unfor- 

 tunately, no doubt that fraudulent dealers 

 " candle " foreign eggs, and put them in as 

 " new-laid British," thus not only cheating \n 

 price, but depraving the public taste, since the 

 really " new-laid " British egg is sid generis. 

 The most amazing fact of all is that producers 

 themselves should act in the besotted fashion 

 above mentioned. Even the lowered railway 

 rates, however, leave something to be desired ; 

 and producers greatly need some such recog- 

 nised price and system as enables the Surrey 

 fowl to be collected, sent to London, and the 

 packages returned to the sender at the definite 

 net charge of one penny per bird. This is based 

 upon the light, but strong, square crates called 

 " pads," which are stacked solid upon each other 

 from floor to roof of the van. These " pads " 

 fill two vans thus packed, at Heathfield, three 

 times a week in the season. 



The National Poultry Organisation Society, 

 whose offices are at 38, Queen Anne's Chambers, 

 Dean Farrar Street, Westminster, London, was 

 founded in i8g8 with a view to get the home 

 trade in poultry and eggs into a 

 Organisation, better business condition. It en- 

 deavours to establish local societies 

 and collecting agencies for forwarding and 

 marketing local products, and stamps the eggs 

 sold under its auspices with its own trade mark, 

 as a guarantee of freshness and quality, w-hich 

 shall at least prevent them from being mixed 

 with foreign importations. Collection appears, 

 upon the whole, to promise more success in Eng- 

 land than such local markets as are common on 

 the Continent, and should also transmit eggs 

 more frequently, and therefore fresher ; but in 

 one or two localities, as in Dorset, there are 

 general markets which are recognised and of 

 considerable use. 



The great need, and it is one that cannot 

 be emphasised too often, is the necessity for 

 scrupulous care by the producer in the collec- 

 tion of eggs for marketing, so as to avoid the 

 slightest chance of a stale or doubtful &%^ 

 being included in any consignment. Another 

 point upon which stress must be laid is that of 

 careful packing. 



Results will much depend upon an adequate 

 winter supply. Not only are prices much better 

 from October till March, but London merchants 

 give marked preference in summ.-^r also to pro- 

 ducers from whom they receive their supply in 

 winter, when wanted most: hence pullets have 



