TEE POULTRY YARD. 215 



mainder of the water ia added. Stir at intervals, and when the pickle is 

 ■Id and the sediment has settled, dip or draw the liquid off into the cask in 

 rt liich the eggs are to be preserved. When only a few eggs are to be pickled 

 a stone jar will answer. 



At the Birmingham Ponltry Show, England, prizes were offered for the 

 best dozen preserved eggs that had been kept two months. The eggs were 

 tested by breaking one of each set competing for the prize into a clean saucer, 

 also by boiling one of each lot. 



The eggs that had been preserved in lime-water, it was found on breaking 

 them, presented cloudy whites. Eggs preserved by rubbing over with bees^ 

 wax and oil showed thin, watery whites. 



Eggs that stood best the test of boiling and which gained the first prize 

 had been simply packed in common salt. These had lost little, if any, by 

 evaporation, had good, consistent albumen, and were pleasant to the tast**. 

 The exhibit which took the second prize was served as follows: Melt one 

 part of white wax to two parts of spermaceti, boil and mix thoroughly; or 

 two parts clarified suet to one of wax and two of spermaceti Take new-laid 

 eggs, rub with antiseptic salt and fine rice starch. Wrap each egg in fine 

 tissue paper, putting the broad end downward; screw the paper tightly at 

 the top, leaving an inch to hold it by. Dip each egg rapidly into the fiit 

 heated to 100 degrees. Withdraw and leave to cool. Pack broad end down- 

 ward in dry, white sand or sawdust. The judges were inclined to beUeve 

 that had the trial been for a longer period than two months, this latter 

 method would perhaps have proven the better of the two. The eggs were 

 excellent, and on stripping oflf the waxed paper the shells presented the clean, 

 fresh appearance of newly laid eggs. 



The following is a recipe for packing in salt: Cover the bottom of a keg, 

 cask, jar, hogshead, or whatever yon choose to pack in, with a layer of fine 

 salt two inches deep; upon this place the eggs, small end down, and far 

 enough apart so that they will not touch each other or the sides of the re- 

 ceptacle; then put on another two inch layer of salt, then another layer of 

 eggs, and so on until the package is full. This Is the method that we used, 

 and is on the whole the best method for housekeepers and for those who 

 have only a small number to pack for market. The salt can be used over 

 and over again. 



The following recipe \& also given for keeping eggs: Put them in an Open- 

 work basket or colander and immerse them for a moment in boiling water; 

 let them stay just long enough to form a film on the inside of the' shell; this 

 excludes the air. Then place them in some convenient vessel, small end 

 down, and set them in the coolest part of the cellar, where they will keep 

 till wanted for use. 



CUeap Poultry \\onae%. — The following directions for building cheap 

 poultry houses are cUpped from W. H. Todd's descriptive catalogue: 



We find the best and most successful plan to manage and make fowls pay 

 is to scatter them over a large range in fields and orchards. For this pur- 

 pose cheap, convenient, and comfortable houses are best. 3Iy plan is to 

 build 16 feet long and 8 feet vdiXc, 7 1-2 front (facing south), and 4 1-2 back, 

 boarded upright and battened, with a shed roof, shingled. SiUs are 2x4 

 inch-plank halved together. Plates, same size. Rafters, 2x2. Lay the silla 

 on sleepers, and on these lay a tight floor, which cover with dry earth ■! to 6 

 "^chta deep, remo\-iug and renewing twice a year. This keeps fowls dry, 

 lana and healthy. Place ^ui entrance door near oue end, on the ^ont, and 



