EGG-COUNTING MACHINE. COMMERCE IN EGGS. 453 



INFALLIBLE EGG-COUNTING MACHINE. 



The counting of e2:gs, in large quantities, by the ordinary method is an opera- 

 tion always attended by much loss of lime, liability to mistake, and risk of break- 

 age. The machine described below may be made in a day or two, by any one 

 possessed of mechanical skill sufficient to handle a saw and hammer, unless neat- 

 ness of finish is desired. Let a frame of wood-work be made precisely similar 

 to a chest of drawers. The drawers should be one inch deep (or sufficiently deep 

 to admit of one layer of eggs), and the bottoms formed of thick plank. 



Previous to putting together, hollow places should be dug in this plank, in 

 rows, at regular distances. They should be one-quarter of an inch deep, and of 

 the size and shape requisite to allow an egg to be laid in each one. A square 

 yard will contain more than five hundred of these hollow places. They should 

 be painted black, and the remainder of the board white. When (illcd with etro-s, 

 the board will present an entirely white surface ; should one or more eggs be 

 lacking, the black spots will immediately be apparent to the most casual ob- 

 server. Black lines should divide the hundreds, and tens ; and, when full, the 

 drawer may be shoved back into its place, until the contents are wanted for 

 market. Any number of drawers may be made, of any convenient size and 

 shape. 



It will be conceded that it is as easy to deposit the eggs in these drawers as 

 in any other proper place ; and, when once in, they are ready counted to hand, 

 without the possibility of a mistake. Besides this, the perfect safe-keeping of 

 the eggs is secured, as no rats or other depredators can obtain access to them, 

 and they will not be broken by shaking or handling. A machine to count 2,000 

 eggs at a time will cost $1 for stuff, and $2 for making, and will last till the 

 general conflagration. s jj jj 



COMMERCE IN EGGS. 



In the whole cycle of commercial statistics, we have not lately met witn any- 

 thing more remarkable than the account we find in the " Journal d'Agricul- 

 TURE Pratique et de Jardixage," on the E^g Trade of France. The Editor 

 says that it appears by official returns that in 1815 the number of eggs exported 

 was not more than to the amount of 1,000,700 francs. In 1816, 8,800,000 francs ; 

 in 1822, 55,000,000 ; in 1824, to 99,500,000 ! The trade was then arrested, and 

 experienced a retrograde movement. The exportation fell to 55,000,000 in 1830, 

 but in 1834 it rose again to 76,800,000, and in 1844 it mounted up to 88,200,000. 

 This mass of eggs weighed, at the rate of sixteen to a kilogramme, 5,213,000 

 kilogrammes ; upon which the Treasury realized 114,000 francs (about $25,000) 

 export duty on eggs ! England takes almost the whole of the eggs exported 

 from France. Of the 88,000,000 above mentioned, 82,500,000 have crossed the 

 Channel. 



According to the official estimates, the consumption of eggs in Paris is 138 for 

 each individual, which is very nearly 120,000,000 a year. We may double this 

 estimate for the rest of France, without exaggeration ; for, in the country, eggs 

 and milk are aliments to be found on every table. We eat, instead of eggs and 

 milk, vast quantities of solid fat meat — Americans having, as was expressively 

 said by the Abbe Cornea, " bacon-stomachs''^ ! 



(933) 



