2 BULLETIN 846, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



quality was analyzed in different laboratories. The present inves- 

 tigation was undertaken in order to critically study these methods, 

 and to ascertain whether they might be so standardized as to give 

 concordant results when a number of analysts examined the same 

 product simultaneously. A further object was to learn whether the 

 results of the standardized methods would truly reflect the known 

 quality of carefully prepared samples. 



PLAN OF INVESTIGATION. 



Since the great bulk of frozen egg products is prepared in the Mid- 

 dle West, it seemed advisable to have the samples prepared in that 

 section. Moreover, it appeared that valuable information could be 

 obtained by preparing samples in different geographical locations, as 

 Michigan or Minnesota, where the eggs while in the shell would have 

 been transported and held under fairly cool climatic conditions, 

 Illinois or Indiana, where the climatic conditions would be somewhat 

 less favorable, and Kansas or Missouri, where the weather would be 

 hot. It was planned to ship these samples for examination to a 

 central point where all the analysts were assembled, in order to 

 eliminate as completely as possible all variable factors. Difficulties 

 in transportation in 1917 made it doubtful as to whether frozen 

 egg samples shipped from a distance would arrive in proper condition 

 for analysis at a central point. For this reason a trip was made to 

 egg-breaking plants in the States named, to ascertain whether eggs 

 were reaching any one large concentrating and breaking center from 

 the same general sources of supply as those used in the other locations, 

 and to learn whether railroad transportation of samples could be 

 depended upon. It was found that shipping frozen egg samples in 

 small lots from outlying points to any central location would be a 

 precarious undertaking and inadvisable. It was found also that in 

 one concentrating center eggs were being received constantly from all 

 of the important producing States, in many instances after long rail- 

 road hauls. For that reason, those in charge of the investigation 

 decided to prepare the samples hi August, when eggs are recognized 

 as being of the poorest quality, in this concentrating center where 

 checks, dirties, and current receipts were being received from distant 

 points, with the attendant possibilities of deterioration. Thus, 

 samples made from the lowest grade eggs which might legitimately 

 be used for food purposes were assured. It was further determined 

 that the samples should be examined in the same city in which they 

 were prepared, in order to eliminate all railroad transportation. 



A series of samples was prepared from the different grades made 

 commercially, allowing the breakers to follow their usual system of 

 grading; a similar series in which the grading was done by members of 

 the Bureau of Chemistry; and a series including a composite sample 



