5?8 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



sound, clean eggs, which the market calls "firsts." What causes con- 

 tribute to this list of undesirable and loss-producing grades ? Three 

 causes mainly: (i) climatic conditions, (2) careless or deliberately 

 bad marketing, (3) poor care of the poultry on the farm. The egg 

 must be kept cool at every stage of its handling if it is to retain a 

 maximum of freshness when it reaches the consumer. This is not a 

 simple matter, even when one considers the great progress made in 

 the extension of artificial refrigeration throughout the country. 

 Refrigeration in cars and warehouses, chilled rooms at the commission 

 man's, and the retailer's icebox are, with fair rapidity, making possible 

 a system of handling that will surmount temperature difficulties, pro- 

 vided the eggs are delivered to- the first refrigerator in good condition. 

 No amount of refrigeration or care will undo the damage done by a 

 few hours of summer sun or a few days in a hot room. Indeed, after 

 deterioration has begun, refrigeration is unable to check those pro- 

 cesses completely. 



The first responsibility for low quality of market eggs is found to 

 rest upon the farmer, and after him come the country produce dealer 

 or storekeeper and the shipper who does not have artificial refrigera- 

 tion. Usually the farmer gathers his eggs daily, or he may gather 

 them at irregular intervals. Stolen nests often accumulate a large 

 lay, over a period of some weeks, and may have been covered by 

 brooding hens for a while, to boot, before the farmer happens to find 

 them; but the chances are that every sound-shelled egg goes to 

 market, regardless of the condition inside the shell. If the eggs are 

 gathered with fair regularity, how are they kept while on the farm ? 

 Generally where the housewife can most conveniently get them for 

 household use, not where the temperature is low and the air fresh. 

 Neither does the farmer have any regular time for taking this stock 

 of eggs to market. In the spring, when they are most plentiful and 

 the market is falling, he is apt to go weekly or the egg peddler calls 

 at the farm. When hot weather comes and the lay falls off he waits 

 for a larger number or is too busy with "crops" to drive to town. 

 Meanwhile shrinking and incubation are going on rapidly, and, as a 

 last insult to the hen which laid a perfectly fresh egg, he often goes 

 to the market with an umbrella over himself, but the basket or box 

 of eggs is exposed to the summer sun, a heat which is often no degrees 

 Fahrenheit and may be 10 degrees above that. In the autumn, with 

 a still smaller lay and a rising market, he holds eggs for high winter 

 prices. The conditions under which he keeps them are not conducive 



