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



Clean seconds, after clean breaking and collecting, gave the products listed under 

 Nos. 538 to 540, inclusive, and again in experiment No. 543. Again the yolks and 

 whites showed less than 1,000 bacteria per gram. From lot 543 was obtained the 

 sample of tanners' egg, given in experiment No. 544. A count of 81,000,000 bacteria 

 is accounted for by the fact that the egg was composed chiefly of green-white eggs, 

 sour eggs, and the drip from the trays. 



The foregoing findings are encouraging in that they correlate bacterial findings with 

 cleanliness and grading. To confirm this indication, similar eggs were broken with 

 the old apparatus cleaned by water alone and using the old methods of procedure. 

 Under such conditions, checked eggs from the same lot as those used in experi- 

 ments Nos. 520 to 525 were broken and prepared as white and yolk as well as whole 

 egg. The number of bacteria in these samples varied from 67,000,000 to 1,100,000, a 

 sharp contrast to the experimental product just discussed. The ammoniacal nitrogen 

 is practically identical with that obtained previously. These eggs were traced through 

 the operation of churning and drying, with the results shown in samples Nos. 530 to 

 532, inclusive, the counts running between 2,600,000 and 4,400,000 on the liquid egg 

 and reaching 27,000,000 for the dried product. The count on sample No. 532, how- 

 ever, the dried product, must be divided by 3 to make it comparable with the liquid 

 egg. It will be observed that every step in the process caused an increase in the 

 number of organisms. Checked eggs commonly run higher in bacteria than do 

 eggs with sound shells of comparable grade. It was, therefore, decided to break some 

 sound, clean eggs by the old methods for comparative purposes. The findings are 

 given as samples Nos. 541 to 550, inclusive, and show a maximum bacterial content 

 of 33,000,000. This series traces the whole egg from the first collecting pails to the 

 dried product. The initial count of the liquid egg, namely, 1,400,000,, is comparable 

 with that given for No. 530. 



Dirty eggs were also to be studied as checks and seconds had been. To this end 

 samples Nos. 545, 546, and 547 were prepared. The clean routine gave a count of 

 450,000 per gram, with 10,000 B. coli, whereas the old methods of breaking dirty 

 eggs gave 8,700,000 total count and 1,000,000 B. coli. These eggs had unusually 

 filthy shells and were a severe test of cleanliness of handling. 



Such preliminary experiments serve to confirm and extend the findings for houses 

 B, C, and E, as seen during 1911. 



Season of 1912. 



changes in construction and equipment. 



The breaking room of F house was not reconstructed in strict accordance with the 

 experimental requirements of this investigation because the management was planning 

 to remodel the entire establishment in the near future. Some important changes, 

 however, were made in the breaking equipment, and a separate wash room was built 

 so that all utensils could be washed outside the breaking room. Plate VII and Plate 

 VIII, figure 1, picture the latter with the equipment in 1912. 



The egg supply was conveyed to the breaking room in the usual shipping cases. 

 Fillers were omitted, if the eggs were not cracked. These containers, and particularly 

 the ones used for checks, carried more dirt into the room than was taken in by any 

 other means. The galvanized-iron buckets shown in two of the pictures were used 

 experimentally for cracked eggs. 



The breaking outfit used during the latter part of 1911 had been improved. (PI. 

 VIII, fig. 1; PI. X, fig. 1.) The tray was made of iron, heavily plated with tin. The 

 eggs were broken on a piece of spun brass inserted in one portion of a tool-steel breaking 

 knife. The whole was tinned. It was notched at each end to fit over set screws in 

 the two uprights. The breaking cups were made of spun brass plated with aluminum. 

 They were supported and held in place by small pieces of spun brass soldered to the 

 bottom of the pan. These, also, were tinned. 



The pictures show the position of the cups in the tray. The one under the breaking 

 portion of the knife caught the drip from the eggs while they were bring cracked; 

 the second underneath the separator was used for whites and the one next for yolks. 

 The fourth, located at one side of the drip cup, was used for soft eggs. If the eggs 

 were not separated the fourth cup was not used. On the lower side of the tray at 

 each corner were soldered pieces of metal which served to anchor the outfit to the 

 breaking stand. The latter was made of spun brass plated with tin. 



From a viewpoint of convenience of manipulation and ease of cleaning, the breaking 

 outfit was very efficient. One defect, however, was the substitution of metal for 

 glass cups. The former, on account of being opaque, interfered with grading in- 



