STUDIES IN EGG-MARKETING 799 



refrigerator cars and candled at the headquarters of the firm 

 within four hours after arrival. The particular shipments referred 

 to above are not cited as examples of average local candling. 

 They show how necessary it is, however, to subject shipments to 

 rigid inspection on arrival at the primary markets. 



After all eggs have been candled and graded, several methods 

 of disposal are open to the firm.' Large numbers of " first-class " 

 eggs may be sold directly to retailers, first-class hotels, or restau- 

 rants. " Seconds " may go to second-class eating houses, inferior 

 retail firms, and bakeries. The last-named class of establish- 

 ments usually buys the "cracks" or "checks." Eggs classified 

 below the above-mentioned grades are not marketable for food 

 purposes at all and are therefore worked over into some manu- 

 factured product. 



Instead of selling in small amounts to retailers, the firm may 

 prepare carload lots and ship to other primary markets. It is in 

 this way that the surplus egg supply of the region is distributed 

 over other parts of the country. Such shipments go east to 

 Chicago or New York, to southern cities, or to primary markets 

 on the Pacific Coast. In recent years an important outlet 

 for such shipments has been afforded at Winnipeg and other 

 Canadian cities. 



The extent of carload shipments has now assumed important 

 dimensions. Egg trains are speeded with dispatch to the leading 

 primary markets of the East. Whether eggs are to be sold in 

 small lots directly to retailers or indirectly through city wagon 

 men or shipped in carload lots to other primary markets depends 

 at any given time upon the state of the local market as com- 

 pared with that at other points. This balancing of sales between 

 local and distant buyers tends to equalize price conditions over 

 large areas. 



Still another method of disposing of the eggs is open to cash- 

 buying firms. This consists in either holding the eggs and plac- 

 ing them in cold storage or selling them to other parties who 

 make a business of cold storage. In either case the effect is 

 to remove the supply from the stock immediately available and 

 to enlarge the reserves for seasons of relative scarcity. To the 



