Preserving Eggs for Use. 43 



the bottom. Screw each egg in paper, rather loosely, so that the paper may present edges and 

 folds, which will keep them from moving much in the bran, and bed them so that there is a clear 

 inch between them, and also to the sides of the box. Fill in bran level with the eggs, after which 

 cover with a sheet of paper, and add an inch of bran as in the bottom. If a second layer of eggs 

 is necessary, cover with a third sheet of paper and proceed as before. The bran must be bedded 

 in rather tightly, or as it settles it will get very loose. The well-known biscuit tins, of the size 

 which contain about a cubic foot, make capital boxes for eggs packed in this way, and the covers 

 only need tightly cording down. Wooden boxes must be either corded or screivcd, nails being 

 on no account used for fastening the cover, as the jarring of the hammer is very injurious. 

 Sawdust may be employed in the same manner as bran, and in an emergency oats may be used, 

 but other grain is too solid. Bedding in moss is perhaps the best method of all where it can be 

 be obtained ; and where it cannot, for fragile Bantam eggs cotton-wool or wadding should be 

 employed. For other kinds, when moss cannot be had, we now prefer to send our own eggs 

 in small round baskets or hampers made for the purpose. The proper size for ten Brahma eggs is 

 ten inches across and six inches deep. Two inches of soft hay are put in the bottom, and a circle 

 of hay an inch thick round the circumference. The eggs are then to be loosely wrapped in paper, 

 leaving the ends square and not tucking them, round, and each one being separately wrapped 

 in a good wisp of soft hay, they are bedded in, by no means tightly, but only solid enough to 

 keep them in position. Some more hay on the top completes the packing, after which the cover 

 is tfed down with a packing-needle. For sending a long voyage we would pack the same way, 

 only using a strong wooden box with a screw-down cover or slide instead of the basket, and 

 allowing more hay round the sides ; we would also pack rather tighter. A package much 

 recommended by some American fanciers consists of a wooden box, with a hay-cushion outside 

 the bottom, formed by standing the box on a piece of canvas, then gathering the latter up at the 

 edges, tacking it round the box an inch from the bottom, and stuffing with hay. A handle on 

 the top is also added, and is a really good thing ; but we believe the cushion part of the arrange- 

 ment to be bad. The only consignment from the States we ever received which was packed on 

 this system failed ; and while we would build no conclusion on this alone, we would add that we 

 made many and careful dynamical experiments on the empty box afterwards, which demonstrated 

 beyond a doubt that, whatever might be the effect on the eggs, the mechanical, effect of the outside 

 cushion was greatly to increase the effect inside the box of any exterior concussion. The cushion 

 in reality acts like the spring-board employed by acrobats, and the interior of the box is far more 

 violently shaken than if none at all were employed. Hence we conclude unhesitatingly that 

 whatever jars or concussions .are to be encountered should be received by the rigid bnv '■<-'"' 



^.,-^-,:k1^ inrl \\(^ npiiti-pliQprl V\\7 nrnopr nnrlcino" 7nifh7i/.. The mrn 



; , uuL tne 



autnonties wiL ^ _ _ acking in small 



"pottle" baskets eggs simply wrapped in paper, or loosely bedding in bran eggs almost touching 

 each other, carmot be too strongly condemned. It may be done through ignorance, but with 

 regard to eggs for which a high price is paid is really little better than a swindle. 



It is often worth while to preserve eggs for winter use, and there are several methods of doing so. 

 One of the best, much used in France, is to smear them with olive oil, in which a little beeswax has 

 been melted. Many persons use butter, but this is apt to turn rancid, which the oil and wax varnish 

 never does. Another method is to pack them in brine ; and thus kept they answer for many 

 purposes, but the yolks become too hard and the whites too salt to be palatable boiled. Packed 

 tightly in dr)-, white salt, they do better, and are pretty good even for boiling after six or eight 



