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



Season of 1912. 

 changes in construction and equipment. 



The construction and equipment of D house needed but little further alteration to 

 bring it into accord with the information gained during the previous season. One of 

 the most important additions in equipment made during the season of 1912 was 

 the installation in the breaking room of a sanitary washbowl with running water. 

 This convenience saved considerable time, because formerly whenever a girl broke 

 an infected egg she had to go outside of the room to wash her hands. 



In the season of 1912 the passageway outside the breaking room was converted into 

 an anteroom opening into the breaking room on one side and into a newly constructed 

 freezer on the other. The wash room, which formerly occupied this passage, was 

 transferred to a large storeroom into which the third door of the anteroom opened. 

 The fourth door of the anteroom led to a toilet room for the breakers. 



The new freezer was well insulated, the walls and ceiling were enameled white, 

 and the floor was made of hard maple. Along two sides of the room were brine-pipe 

 racks on which the 30-pound cans of liquid egg were set while freezing. One side 

 of this room is pictured in Plate XIII, figure 1. The proximity of this freezer to the 

 breaking room greatly facilitated the disposal of the eggs after they were broken. 



CONDITIONS PREVAILING EVERY THIRD WEEK FROM APRIL TO SEPTEMBER. 



Visit No. 1 {May 6 to 11). 



At this time the breaking stock consisted of small, cracked, and dirty eggs sorted 

 from the current receipts of this house and other houses within convenient shipping 

 distance. . . 



On the first day of the visit the eggs were not being candled. It was observed that 

 the girls in the breaking room were annoyed by the frequency of the bad eggs which 

 could have been eliminated by candling. The management on the next day began 

 candling the eggs bought from other houses for breaking purposes. This change in 

 routine, however, only partially corrected the trouble in the breaking room, because 

 the work of the candlers was inefficient and because the current receipts of D house 

 were not graded before going to the breakers. 



Most of the egg breakers had worked the previous season, consequently they had 

 received the benefit of the week's training in September, 1911, when they were 

 taught the principles of bacterial cleanliness as applied to the handling of a food 

 product and as far as possible the essential points to be observed in the grading of eggs 

 out of the shell. These instructions were codified and a written copy given each 

 girl to be followed by her in her work during the ensuing season. Their observance 

 had considerable influence on the cleanliness of the product. In substance the rules 

 were as follows: 



1. Hands and uniform must be kept clean. 



2. Do not use any apparatus coming in contact with food egg unless it has previ- 

 ously been both washed and sterilized. 



3. Breaking the eggs. — Grasp the egg with the thumb, first and second fingers of the 

 right hand. Give the egg a quick blow on the sharp part of the knife with sufficient 

 force to make an even cut just through the shell and its membrane. Quickly turn 

 the crack upward so there will be no leakage from the egg while it is being trans- 

 ferred from the knife to the cup. With the first and second fingers on the ends of the 

 egg, use the tips of the thumbs to pull the two halves of the shell apart. To empty 

 the shell turn each half directly upside down so that they do not touch each other 

 and drain for the length of time to count one, two, three. Do not let the cups 

 touch the knife. 



4. When separating white from yolk, have three cups on the tray. Put two on the 

 side which gets the best light, far enough back to be able to crack the eggs on the 

 knife well beyond the cups. Put the other cup on the other side of the tray behind the 

 breaking place on the knife. Put the white into the first cup, the yolk into the 

 second. The other cup on the opposite side is for soft or doubtful eggs. Never sepa- 

 rate dirty eggs by the shell method. 



5. Drying fingers. — Only the tips of the fingers should touch the eggs. They should 

 be dried frequently on tissue paper. 



6. Use two cups and, unless bad eggs are prevalent, put two and no more into each 

 cup before emptying. 



7. Smell and look at every cup of eggs carefully before emptying. 



8. When emptying cups, pour out eggs, then touch edge of cup against inside of can 

 at least 2 inches below the rim. Do not, therefore, fill cans too full. 



9. Eggs to be discarded. — Musty, moldy, and sour eggs, eggs with a bloody or green 

 white, mixed rots, eggs with a stuck yolk, white rots, and eggs with a bad odor. 



