288 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



well as to distributors of perishable food products. The storing 

 of such products is a legitimate form of speculative business. It 

 prevents waste and loss. The demand for eggs and poultry to 

 go into cold storage raises the price at seasons of plenty and 

 makes a good market for all eggs and poultry that are fit to 

 store. The eggs and poultry that have been stored furnish 

 consumers with supplies at reasonable prices for much longer 

 seasons. As a rule supplies in storage are not kept there for 

 very long periods. Speculators who want to be on the safe side 

 plan very carefully so that most, if not all, of the stuff that they 

 have stored shall be sold before new supplies become abundant 

 in the market. To do this they have to watch very closely every 

 condition affecting the markets, and to use good judgment in 

 selling. Most of them do not, as is popularly supposed, hold their 

 entire stock for the period when prices are highest. If they did, 

 all would lose. Eggs begin to come out of storage about midsum- 

 mer, and are withdrawn gradually for about six months. By far 

 the greater part of the poultry stored goes into the warehouses 

 in the fall and begins to come out soon after the winter holidays. 



Within the limits of the time that goods may be carried in 

 cold storage profitably, long storage has no more bad effects on 

 eggs and 'poultry than refrigeration for short periods. Cold- 

 storage products are usually of better than average quality if 

 used immediately upon being withdrawn from storage. 



Methods of selling at retail. For convenience in handling 

 and counting them in quantities, eggs are packed in cases con- 

 taining thirty dozen each, and wholesale transactions in eggs are 

 by the case, but with the price usually quoted by the dozen. 

 Consumers who use large quantities of eggs buy them by the 

 case. The ordinary consumer buys them by the dozen. There 

 is a widespread impression that, inasmuch as eggs vary greatly 

 in size, the practice of selling them by count is not fair to the 

 consumer. This feeling sometimes goes so far that laws are 

 proposed, and even passed, requiring that eggs shall be sold by 



