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



Routine of Egg Breaking. 



All the eggs coming to the breaking room were candled, but the candlers were apt 

 to put in doubtful eggs for the breakers to grade, rather than take the time and trouble 

 to decide in the candling room whether they were or were not fit for food. All the 

 eggs were chilled, but the breaking room was not, hence there was a profuse sweating 

 of shells dining much of the egg-breaking season. 



The girls removed the fillers and flats, layer by layer, as they reached them, and 

 took several eggs at one time, holding them in the right hand, and pushing up one at 

 a time for shell cracking and emptying. Of course, dirty eggs, sweating also, imme- 

 diately resulted in badly soiled hands. The eggs were cracked on the edge of a 

 cup, glass, or whatever type of receptacle the breaker happened to have. Generally, 

 it was not suited to cracking an egg because it mashed and splintered the shells 

 instead of making a clean cut. Having cracked the shell, the girl was supposed to 

 hold it over the glass and determine, by the appearance of the egg at the crack, whether 

 it could or could not be separated into white and yolk, or to which grade of egg it 

 belonged. If it could be separated, the white was drained off, housewife fashion, 

 into one receptacle, and the yolk dropped into another. If the egg was too "soft" 

 to separate, but odorless, it went into first-grade whole eggs. If it was a little "off, " 

 or "strong," or a "beginning sour," it went into second-grade whole eggs. The tan- 

 ners' egg was composed of white rots, which were not too malodorous, musty eggs, 

 moldy eggs, eggs with a bloody white, and blood-ring eggs. 



The forewoman gave some instructions regarding the grading of eggs by appearance, 

 odor, taste, etc. In practice, every girl graded according to her own sweet will. 

 Hence, the output of the different breakers was very uneven. In the long run, 

 judging by observation, about as many firsts went into seconds as there were seconds 

 put into firsts. 



When some of the egg yolk, during the process of separation, ran into the tumbler 

 of egg white, it was fished out by means of a spoon, or, more commonly, by a piece of 

 egg shell. If an objectionable yolk got into the yolk cup, or some of a bad egg into 

 a food-egg grade, the entire contents of the receptacle was supposed to go into the 

 bucket indicated by the character of the egg last entering. In practice, however, 

 the breaker used a spoon or an egg shell to take out as much of the objectionable egg 

 as she could see and quite disregarded its presence when grading. The remnants left 

 were a fine source of contamination and foci for bacterial troubles later on. The girls 

 in C house used cups and tumblers large enough to hold from 6 to 10 eggs. Many 

 times it was the last egg required to fill the vessel that was off grade. The instinctive 

 desire on the part of the breaker to procure as much high-grade product for her 

 employer as possible, and her reluctance to swell the amount in her tanners' bucket, 

 will override all instructions forbidding the removal of objectionable eggs as just 

 described. The only way to overcome the habit is to have the first receiver so small 

 that it cannot accommodate more than two or three eggs. 



Cleanliness. 



The problem of cleanliness assumed a different aspect in C house, because of the 

 running cold water to which every girl had easy access. Laboratory methods were 

 called in to determine the efficacy of frequent rinsing in cold water with the supple- 

 mentary cleaning in hot water twice a day in removing the bacteria of the objec- 

 tionable egg, or other dirt, from hands and utensils. 



At noontime, after the usual cleaning in hot water, a number of the cups, tumblers, 

 etc., were tested for bacterial contamination. In every case, abundant evidence of 

 insufficient cleansing was observed. Plate II, figure 1, shows the growth resulting 

 when the edge of a tumbler was just touched against a sterile agar film on a petri 

 plate. 



To gain some idea of the number of organisms adhering to the vessels, a drop of 

 water from each of a number of tumblers was plated as is customary when colonies 

 are to be counted. A glass which had received yolks gave an average of 630 organisms 

 to the drop; one that had been used for whites gave 570; the glass that had received 

 the tanners' egg gave 5,900 per drop. That the pails into which the eggs were first 

 emptied were prolific carriers of organisms was also proved. Plating in this case gave 

 2,600,000 per cc, equivalent to 20 drops. That more bacteria would adhere to the 

 agateware pails than to china or glass cups was to be expected, because of the greater 

 roughness of the former. 



It was desirable, also, to determine to what extent the fingers of these girls passed 

 on the bacteria of rejected eggs to those that had but few. Plate II, figure 2, shows 



