18 A DISSERTATION ON EGGS 



One wonders how it is that eggs can be 

 collected in such large quantities as these, and 

 the information given on this point is certainly 

 not without its interest. Throughout Southern 

 Russia, Galicia, and Rumania almost every 

 peasant has his stock of fowls, and not only is 

 the rearing of them a well-understood art, 

 ingrained in the people from long experience, 

 but land costs only a few shillings an acre, and 

 the abundant maize grown thereon is excellent 

 feeding -stuff for the fowls, the cost and the 

 keep of which are thus reduced to very small 

 proportions indeed. The eggs are purchased 

 from the peasants by " higglers " — mostly Jews 

 — who make a business of going round from 

 farm to farm, or from cottage to cottage, buying 

 up all the eggs they can get. Certain towns in 

 Galicia or elsewhere have their recognised egg 

 markets, and in these towns live the agents of 

 various English firms. To them the " higglers " 

 will make the first offer of the eggs they have 

 gathered in, and, if terms cannot then be 

 arranged, the eggs will be put on the open 

 market and disposed of there. In either case 

 the agents who purchase the eggs re-pack them 

 for transit by rail and sea, and this is so well 

 done that only about 2 per cent, of those 

 despatched to this country are found to be 



