3. Wholesaler — A firm that sold more than 50 percent of the 

 eggs handled to retailers, dairies, restaurants, hotels, institutions, 

 or other places of final sale or consumption. 



4. Assembler — A firm that sold more than 50 percent of the eggs 

 handled to packers or wholesalers or other intermediaries that 

 were not the places of final sale or consumption. 



5. Trucker — A firm that performed only the transportation 

 function and did not take title to the eggs handled. 



6. Breaker — A firm that removed the eggs from the shell and 

 sold liquid, dried or frozen eggs for use in further processing. 



To determine the primary category of a firm, the firms were con- 

 sidered in the order of categories listed. Thus, for example, if a firm 

 produced more than 50 percent of the eggs handled and also candled 

 and cartoned more than 50 percent of the eggs, its primary category was 

 a producer. Subcategories were also determined. The firm in the above 

 example was put in the major category of producer and sub-category of 

 producer-packer. All firms were placed in a major category and a sub- 

 category on the above basis. The first three categories were the most 

 important in terms of numbers and volume. 



Sampling Procedure 



The over-all sample size was 50 percent of the universe. The sample 

 size within individual categories varied. Categories with small numbers 

 of firms in them were sampled more heavily than categories with large 

 numbers of firms. In conducting the interviews, two problems were en- 

 countered. First, some firms refused to cooperate; therefore, it was 

 not possible to draw purely random samples within individual cate- 

 gories. Second, the initial information provided by the firms did not 

 always prove to be correct, and some firms actually fell in different 

 categories or were of different sizes than was anticipated. 



The number of firms interviewed within each category are presented 

 in Table 1. Only major categories are shown, since the initial estimates 

 of the number of firms in the universe for sub-categories proved to be 

 somewhat inaccurate. The location of firms interviewed is shown in 

 Figure 1. 



Table 1. Number of Egg Marketing Firms Interviewed in This Study, 

 by State and Type of Firm, 1965. 



* Only producers performing marketing functions were enumerated. 



7 



