POULTRY. 1079 



pickle old, stale eggs that have thin, weak whites. When the 

 eggs are within four inches of the top of the cask or vat, cover 

 them with factory cloth, and spread on two or three inches of 

 the lime that settles in making the pickle, and it is of the 

 greatest importance that the pickle be kept continually up over 

 this lime. A tin basin (holding about six or eight dozen eggs), 

 punched quite full of inch holes, edge muffled with leather, and 

 a suitable handle about three feet long attached, will be found 

 convenient for putting the eggs into the pickle. Fill the basin 

 with eggs, put both under the pickle and turn the eggs out; 

 they will go to the bottom without breaking. 



"When the time comes to market the eggs, they must be 

 taken out of the pickle, cleaned, dried, and packed. To clean 

 them, secure half of a molasses hogshead, or something like it, 

 and fill the same about half full of water. Have a sufficient 

 number of crates of the right size (to hold twenty or twenty- 

 five dozen eggs), made of laths or other slats, placed about 

 three-quarters of an inch apart. Sink one of these crates in 

 the half-hogshead; take the basin used to put the eggs into the 

 pickle; dip the eggs by raising it up and down in the water, 

 and, if necessary to properly clean them, set the crate up. and 

 douse water over them. Then, if any eggs are found when 

 packing that the lime has not been fully relieved from, they 

 should be laid out, and all the lime cleaned off before packing. 

 When the eggs are carefully washed they can be set up or out 

 in a suitable place to dry, in the crates. They should dry 

 quickly, and be packed as soon as dry. In packing, the same 

 rules should be observed as in packing fresh eggs. 



"Vats built in a cellar around the walls, with about half 

 their depth below the surface, about four or five feet deep, six 

 feet long, and four feet wide, are usually considered the best for 

 preserving eggs in, although many use and prefer large tubs 

 made of wood. The place in which the vats are built, or the 

 tubs kept, should be clean and sweet, free from all bad odors, 

 and where a steady, low temperature may be maintained the 

 lower the better; that is, down to any point above that of 

 freezing." 



