A COMMERCIAL POINT OF VIEW. 57 



will be found that after the twenty-first day the fecundated 

 egg is putrid, and the clear egg fit for use. To exclude 

 the air from the egg, and to prevent the evaporation of its 

 liquid, it has been proposed by some writers to pack the 

 eggs in salt, lime, bran, saw-dust, &c., by others to keep 

 the eggs immersed in lime-water, in salt water, or both 

 combined ; others, again, suggest to varnish or oil the 

 eggs, and some even to parboil them. 



There can be no doubt that, were the object to be 

 accomplished solely to preserve the eggs from getting 

 putrid, some of these suggestions might be employed to 

 advantage ; but there is more required than simply to 

 preserve the egg from putrefaction ; for instance, for 

 kitchen use, and the breakfast table, eggs ought not 

 only to be preserved fresh, but also free from any foreign 

 flavor, such as lime, salt, bran, saw-dust, varnish, and oil 

 must necessarily impart to the egg through its porous 

 shell ; and as for breeding from such preserved eggs, it 

 is out of the question. Who has ever seen any chickens 

 hatched from salted or mouldy eggs, or from such as 

 have been varnished or oiled, which latter process stops 

 up the pores through which the air, so indispensable to 

 the formation and development of the chicken, must be 

 admitted ? 



Now, the most effective, simple, and economical plan 

 for truly preserving eggs, and without imparting to them 

 any foreign flavor, or rendering them unfit for hatching 

 purposes, is to use the patent stoppered glass jars, with 

 vulcanized India-rubber joints (see fig. 21), and proceed 

 thus : 



Immediately after collecting the eggs, put the jar in hot 



