PREPARATION OF FROZEN AND DRIED EGGS. 27 



the number of colonies which developed when a sterile petri plate was touched with 

 the tips of five fingers that had just been washed because they were wet with egg — 

 but not with objectionable egg. For comparison with this, Plate II, figure 3, is 

 given. Here we have the result of breaking a tanners' egg. Even though the hands 

 were washed in running cold water, the mere touch of finger tips gave so many colo- 

 nies that they were innumerable. 



The lessons here are quite plain. First, ordinary washing of either hands or utensils 

 is not sufficient to keep them, bacterially, fit for egg breaking; and, second, when bad 

 eggs, unfit for food, are broken the removal of the hordes of bacteria which they carry 

 becomes an extremely difficult task. 



Comparison op the Commercial Product with Experimental Samples. 



A number of samples of the product of C house were taken during the months of 

 July and August, 1911. The bacterial content of the whites were, on the whole, the 

 lowest; yolk was considerably higher, and the whole egg the highest. The greater 

 number of the routine samples of whole egg were of the second grade. (See Table 

 C-I, Appendix, p. 64.) It will also be seen that some of the so-called second-grade 

 egg is of quite as good, if not better, quality than the first grade — a result which 

 was to be expected from the loose methods of grading. 



The glass cups, adjustable knives, and wire-screened tray, described on page 11 of 

 Circular 98, were taken to C house in order to determine the character of the eggs used 

 as indicated by cleanly methods of handling. A supply of live steam in a near-by 

 creamery was utilized to sterilize the apparatus. Part I of Table 14 shows the results 

 obtained from eggs with cracked shells, when sterilized apparatus was used, and, 

 under "Commercial samples" are shown similar eggs broken in very cleanly fashion 

 in the apparatus belonging to the house. The second-grade, commercial, whole egg is 

 decidedly richer in organisms than is the first-grade whole egg (9,200,000 in one case 

 and 4,900,000 in the other), but because the number of samples is so small but little 

 stress can be laid on the findings. The higher bacterial count for the first-grade whole 

 egg of the experimental samples is probably due to the fact that soft eggs without 

 bad odor but which would not separate were used — an interesting side light on the 

 results of errors in grading. Considering the whites and yolks only, the count of the 

 commercial samples varied from 310,000 per gram in the white to 1,600,000 in the 

 yolk, as compared with 810,000 and 770,000 in the experimental series. When the 

 experiment was repeated, using seconds with sound shells instead of cracked eggs, 

 all the bacterial counts were decidedly lower. 



