1 6 A DISSERTATION ON EGGS 



4-ton lot. In the case of another English 

 railway company, also operating in an agri- 

 cultural district, the leading officials, when ques- 

 tioned on the subject, said they had never heard 

 of such a consignment as a case of English eggs 

 — a case representing 1,440 eggs. Whereas a 

 single steamer arriving at a British port has been 

 known to bring any number of tons of eggs up 

 to eighty or ninety, which are earned to their 

 destination in truck or even in train loads, con- 

 signments of English eggs would not average 

 more than a single cwt., picked up at some 

 wayside station. Yet the farmer who sends 

 his cwt. expects to get the same rate as the 

 wholesale dealers who handle their scores of 

 tons. 



The trade in foreign eggs has, indeed, attained 

 to dimensions which few persons beyond those 

 concerned therein can adequately realize. There 

 is one firm alone in London that receives on an 

 average 20,000 cases of eggs every week all the 

 year round. The eggs in question come mostly 

 from Russia, Galicia, Rumania, and Austria. 

 Between April and August from 10,000 to 

 15,000 cases will be sent weekly to the firm in 

 question by way of St. Petersburg or Riga 

 direct to London by sea. The freight from 

 port to port represents about 3.9. a case, though, 



