30 IMPROVEMENT OF THE FARM EGG 



IRREGULARITY IN GATHERING THE EGGS. 



The practice of combining forces and organizing a general search 

 party to gather in the eggs on market day is still practiced on many 

 of the farms in Kansas. This is indeed a deplorable custom, and 

 there is no question but that it is the cause of many rotten eggs. It 

 is easy to see how eggs allowed to remain for several days or a week 

 in the unsuitable places where they may have been laid, subjected 

 probably to high temperature, wet by dew and by rain, and perhaps 

 sat upon by a broody hen, are certain to have undergone serious 

 deterioration if they are not absolutely spoiled. 



MALES RUNNING WITH FLOCK AFTER HATCHING SEASON. 



This is the usual rather than the unusual condition. Of the 92 

 farms, there were only 16 on which any effort had been made to 

 separate the males from the hens after the hatching season, while on 

 the remaining 76 farms the males and hens ranged together. Justifi- 

 cation for this practice is sometimes sought in the argument that 

 there will be some stolen nests that remain undiscovered for so long 

 that even the conscience hardened by the case-count system of buying 

 will not consent to their being marketed, and that if these eggs had 

 been fertilized by allowing the males to run with the flock a part 

 of the eggs would have hatched and the loss would not have been 

 absolute. It should be borne in mind, however, that a much greater 

 loss actually does occur when the eggs are fertile, for it is from the 

 fertile eggs only that the great mass of bad and deteriorated eggs 

 known as heated eggs, blood rings, and many of the rots develop. 

 With the eradication of fertile eggs during the hot summer months, 

 a large part of the problem of heated eggs would be solved. Surely 

 this is not a difficult condition to bring about if each one would do 

 his part. 



INEFFICIENT STORING FACILITIES. 



This is a serious difficulty with which the fawner's wife has to con- 

 tend, as a great many of the country homes in Kansas do not have 

 dry, cool cellars, and when the thermometer begins to register from 

 100 to 106 F., there is no good place to keep perishable produce. 

 To overcome this difficulty use is often made of the " cyclone cellar," 

 or cave. In some instances these caves are of concrete construction 

 throughout, and on such farms very little difficulty is experienced 

 in keeping eggs in good condition. Some of the caves, however, are 

 nothing more than oblong holes in the ground over which a rough 

 gable roof is built. The soil which has been excavated to make the 

 cave is thrown over this roof and thoroughly packed so as to make it 

 cool and practically waterproof. Caves of such construction are 

 very hard to keep clean on account of the dampness and mold, which 

 are always present when dirt walls and floor are used, and conse- 



