PROBLEMS IN MARKETING EGGS. 



Mr. E. W. Benjamin, 

 Department of Poultry Husbandry, College of Agriculture, Cornell University. 



Mr. Ben.jamin: Madam Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: First I 

 might say I do not know how to express my appreciation for this oppor- 

 tunity of being here today. I am very glad to be here at a conference of 

 this sort, as this conference, it seems to me, is one which will really aid in 

 bringing the important questions of distributing food products to a focus. 

 It marks a very distinct stepping stone in improving many of the chief 

 faults in our systems of food handhng and in connecting the producer 

 with the consumer in a better way than we have been connecting them in 

 the past. 



My subject is ''Problems in Marketing Eggs." I consider that the 

 problem in marketing eggs. is the problem of making both the consumer 

 and the producer better satisfied. One is just as important as the other. 

 Both the consumer and the producer should be better satisfied than they 

 are at present if we are going to in any way solve this problem of market- 

 ing eggs, or as a matter of fact, the problem of marketing any food prod- 

 uct, since the principles involved are always essentially the same. 



I presume that eggs are thought of about as much as anything at 

 this time of the year. It happens once a year that everybody thinks that 

 eggs are away out of sight and it appears that there is a great deal more 

 trickery with the marketing of eggs than exists in the marketing of other 

 products. Regularly every year, at this season and a few weeks earlier, 

 everybody's hens have stopped laying. If you go out into the country 

 and try to get some fresh eggs, you will see how hard it is to get them. 

 The hens have stopped laying entirely and the farmers have not seen an 

 egg for a long, long time. We are now just beginning to get fresh eggs, 

 and in two or three weeks the number of fresh eggs will increase and the 

 price will gradually go down. Just at this time, however, it is almost 

 impossible to get fresh eggs from the American farming communities. 

 Some who speciaUze in poultry farming do have eggs the year round and 

 can afford to properly take care of the birds for the purpose of supplying 

 a few consumers, but it is almost impossible to get fresh eggs on the gen- 

 eral market at this time of the year. As a substitute we have the cold 

 storage product or product that has been held for a varying length of 

 time, coming in to supply that need. 



In making both the producer and consumer better satisfied, I might 

 enumerate the things that the consumer wants, and the first one of^these 



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