Cooperation 167 



" Buying eggs by quality not by count. The ship- 

 per can materially improve the quality of eggs in the 

 market if he persistently buys by quality not simply 

 by count. He will also improve his business. This has 

 been tried sporadically, by a shipper or two, here and 

 there, but all except a few firms have forsaken their guns 

 when shots were most needed that is, when eggs be- 

 came scarce or low grade, and competition began to be 

 felt. One packer has adhered to a quality basis for 12 

 years, using four grades. He has built up a business which 

 is good and a reputation which is even better. This repu- 

 tation prevails not only on the market, where his egg 

 pack is taken without a question, but among the farmers 

 and peddlers who supply him with eggs. His grading is 

 accepted by them, and their aim is now not only to see 

 how many eggs they can bring in, but how many of them 

 can be gotten to him as 'number ones.' Here is a real 

 educator as well as a good business man. 



"Refrigerated receiving stations. The packer, too, 

 must have artificially refrigerated rooms for handling 

 and holding eggs. Indeed, it seems likely that, as the 

 egg and poultry industry develops, and we must give more 

 attention to the saving of the garnered foodstuffs, there 

 will be numerous receiving stations throughout the coun- 

 try, easy of access and artificially refrigerated, that per- 

 ishable products in general may be economically handled 

 at the source of production. 



"Care of eggs at the source of production. The source 

 of production: there is the starting point for most of 

 the trouble in the handling of perishable produce, be it 

 Southern cotton mishandled in the field before it is baled, 



