10 



BULLETIN" 224, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



a large part of the contents ran over the shells and collected around the eggs in the 

 bottom of the pail, thereby making it impossible to prepare a clean product from 

 leakers handled in this manner. 



TRAY METHOD OP HANDLING LEAKERS. 



To avoid these difficulties a tray method of handling leakers was devised. The 

 tray was made of galvanized iron and consisted of a drip pan upon which was placed a 

 plate with perforations for holding the leaking eggs. (PL XIII, fig. 2.) The openings 

 were round and about If inches in diameter, or hexagonal with sides about six-tenths 

 of an inch in length. The plate was kept in position by means of solder in the corners 

 of the drip pan, or by projections soldered on the sides about 1 inch from the bottom. 

 The trays were 1 to 2 inches high, with perpendicular or beveled sides, and 1 foot 

 square or 1 foot wide by 2 feet long, the former having a capacity of 3 dozen eggs, the 

 latter 6 dozen. The smaller size was much more convenient because it took up less 

 space in the candling room. 



After a leaking egg was candled it was placed, damaged end up, in one of the holes 

 of the tray. When filled the tray was carried to the breaking room, where the eggs 

 were broken and graded. The breaking and grading of these eggs was delegated to a 

 few expert girls, because it was impossible to grade leakers as closely by the candle 

 or to break them in as cleanly a manner as cracked or sound eggs. The leaking eggs 

 were opened with the thumb and the two first fingers of each hand, and in many 

 instances without using a breaking knife. Precaution was taken to keep the leaking 

 end of the egg down while the egg was being opened so that the contents would drop 

 into the cup instead of running over the shell and wetting the fingers of the breaker. 

 The same principles used in the grading of the regular breaking stock were used for 

 leakers, except that the grading of soft eggs was done much more closely. 



During the first part of the season bacteriological and chemical tests were made of 

 six small samples of leaking eggs collected in the candling room and opened and 

 graded carefully in the breaking room. The results are given in Table 3. These 

 results compared favorably with those obtained from contemporaneous samples of 

 eggs broken from cracked and whole eggs, and warranted further investigation of 

 leaking eggs to determine whether they could safely be conserved for food purposes. 



Table 3. — Experimental samples of leaking eggs, opened in the breaking room (D house, 



1912). 



Sample 

 No. 



Source. 



Date of collec- 

 tion. 



Bacteria per gram 

 on plain agar in- 

 cubated at — 



Gas-pro- 

 ducing 

 bacteria 

 per gram 

 in lactose 

 bile. 



Ammoniacal 



nitrogen (Folin 



method). 



Moisture. 



Number 

 of eggs in 



20° C. 



37° C. 



"Wet 



basis. 



Dry 



basis. 



sample. 



4273 



D-l 

 D-l 

 D-l 

 D-l 

 D-l 



May 8 



2,100 

 16,500 

 45, 000 

 37, 000 

 100,000 



1,300 



4,200 

 34, 500 



5,000 

 62,000 



10,000 







10,000 



100 



10 



Per cent. 



0.0015 



.0013 



Per cent. 



0. 0053 



.0045 



Per cent. 

 71.91 

 70.83 



13 



4274.... 

 4275 



do 



do.... 



13 

 6 



4284 



do 



.0019 

 .0013 



.0067 

 .0046 



71.53 

 71.85 



12 



4286 



do 



12 









Laboratory tests of three samples of leaking eggs broken in the candling room at F 

 house during May showed a variation of from 1,600,000 to 25,000,000 per gram in the 

 bacterial count, and of 10,000 to 100,000 per gram in the number of presumptive 

 B. coli. (Table 4.) Sample No. 4370, representing 150 pounds of leakers, broken in 

 the candling room of F house during the latter part of May, showed the high count 

 of 25,000,000 organisms per gram, but a low amount of ammoniacal nitrogen, namely, 

 0.0020 per cent on the fresh basis and of 0.0067 per cent on the dry basis. These 

 results indicate that most of the eggs in the product were sound, but that there 

 were some highly contaminated eggs in the mass. Their presence was probably due 

 to the impossibility of eliminating infected eggs when opening leakers in a candling 

 room. Results of samples taken about a month later, but handled by the tray 

 method, gave as shown in Table F-X (appendix) bacterial counts varying from 23,500 

 to 1,700,000 per gram and the number of presumptive B. coli between 10 and 10,000 

 per gram. These results indicated, therefore, that the minimum count of the samples 

 of leaking eggs opened in the candling room was, approximately, the same as the 

 maximum count of those opened in the breaking room; and that the presumptive 

 ntunber of B. coli was also, in most cases, higher in eggs handled by the old method. 



