152 THE TRADE IN EGGS AND POULTRY 



system of organization or collection which alone permits 

 of the consignment of large quantities of eggs from the 

 foreign countries now sending us the bulk of our imports. 

 For the farmer or the cottager to try to get a living 

 out of eggs alone would be a mistake. But, regarded 

 as a subsidiary industry, involving no large outlay and 

 no great amount of labour especially where there is 

 land available over which the birds can run without 

 being cooped up egg production should be looked at 

 as a source of additional profit not to be despised. 



The crux of the question, however, is not the pro- 

 duction of eggs at home, but the marketing of them, 

 and here is where the need for combination comes in. 

 The almost helpless position of the British farmer as 

 an individual unit is especially noticeable when he 

 wants to dispose of the basket of eggs he has got from 

 the fowls he keeps. By the time he or his wife has 

 taken them to the market town, and there obtained 

 such price as the middleman dealer thinks fit to pay 

 for them, the business may well seem to be more 

 trouble than it is worth. In Denmark, on the other 

 hand, there are 400 egg societies, which not only 

 collect from their 30,000 members saving them all 

 trouble in the way of marketing, and paying them 

 a fair market price but also test and grade the eggs, 

 so that both the dealers and the consumers can depend 

 on the quality of what they buy. 



With a similar organization on a widespread scale 

 in this country, not only would the present difficulties 

 of the British farmer in the way of disposing of his 

 eggs at a remunerative price disappear, but he would 

 find it worth his while to go in still more extensively 

 for a business which he has deliberately allowed to 

 drift so largely into the hands of foreigners. It may 

 be that with their cheaper land and larger areas the 



