62 



BULLETIN 22<1, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



Visit No. 5 (July 29 to August 2). 



The fifth series of observations was made when, owing to a prolonged period of hot 

 weather, there was an increased supply of eggs for breaking. Many of the eggs were 

 distinctly lower in quality than the breaking stock previously used. The regular 

 candling room was not large enough to handle all the eggs, therefore an auxiliary 

 candling room was established in one corner of a storeroom. Not being refrigerated, 

 it was very hot. To take care of the extra supply of eggs, new candlers were required. 

 From this fact, together with the increased difficulty in grading such low quality 

 eggs, it could be predicted that large numbers of bad eggs would not be detected and 

 would therefore gain access to the breaking room. 



An observation made in the breaking room showed that 41 bad eggs, or 9.5 per cent, 

 were found in a total of 36 dozen. These should all have been eliminated by the 

 candlers. An analysis of the 41 eggs showed that they consisted of 2 eggs containing 

 mold spots, 6 blood rings, 13 white rots, and 20 eggs with an adherent yolk. 



The effect of so many bad eggs in the breaking-room stock is shown by the fact that 

 the product broken from the lot of 36 dozen eggs contained 20,000,000 organisms per 

 gram. 



An investigation in the candling'room showed that the trouble was chiefly ignorance 

 on the part of the new candlers. By working with them for a short time and pointing 

 out which eggs should be saved and which discarded the number of bad eggs in the 

 breaking stock was promptly reduced. 



In order to put a check on the work of individual candlers, each man was instructed 

 to place a tag bearing his name on every bucket of eggs candled by him. Under this 

 system the work of an individual candler could be traced into the breaking room. 

 Under this regulation the men worked more cautiously, and as long as this system was 

 in use the work in the candling room was greatly improved. 



The girls in the breaking room, now 14 m number, were doing efficient work under 

 the supervision of the new forewoman. The organization previously described, 

 including a forewoman, had been in operation about two weeks. During this time the 

 increased efficiency in the breaking room was equivalent to the wages of the 

 forewoman. 



Up to this time one-half of the girls had their egg supply on the left instead of on 

 the right side ; observations with a split-second stop watch showed that 1.8 seconds 

 were lost for every four eggs broken when a girl reached for her eggs with her left 

 rather than with her right hand. 



Estimating these results on the basis of a 10-hour day, a girl reaching to the right for 

 the eggs could break 1.4 more cases a day than she could when working toward the 

 left. In accordance with these results, all the apparatus on the breaking table was 

 rearranged so that no extra motions were made from the time the egg was removed 

 from the pail until it reached its final container. 



The majority of the commercial samples taken during the latter part of July con- 

 tained not only more bacteria but also more loosely bound nitrogen than did any pre- 

 vious series of samples. For instance, the five specimens of mixed eggs collected 

 during the investigator's absence and the five collected during visit No. 5 had, as 

 given in Table D-II, visit No. 5 (Appendix), an average count of 1,400,000 organisms 

 per gram as compared with 650,000 in the samples taken during the first half of the 

 month. The white and yolk samples showed an even greater increase in bacteria. 



During this visit there was received one shipment of 72 cases of checks which showed 

 a combined loss in the candling and breaking room of 14.6 per cent. The bacterial 

 findings given in Table 28 showed that the product from these eggs had a materially 

 higher bacterial content than the regular product. Many of the eggs were moldy. 

 They were obtained from a shipper who had gradually sorted them out of his receipts 

 as unsuited for shipping and had therefore sold them to an egg-breaking establish- 

 ment. 



Table 28. — Commercial samples of low quality, cracked eggs (D house, 1912.) 



Sample 

 No. 



Description and size of 

 sample. 



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). 



Moist- 



20° C. 



37° C. 



Wet 

 basis. 



Dry 



basis. 





4855 



4856 



Visit iVo. 5. 



Cracked eggs, 125 pounds 



Cracked eggs, 100 pounds 



July 29* 

 ...do 



Aug. 1 



6,000,000 

 4,800,000 

 5,400,000 



5,500,000 

 4,000,000 

 4,300,000 



100,000 

 100,000 

 100,000 



Per ct. 

 0.0023 



Per ct. 

 0.0075 



Per ct. 

 69.19 



4886 



.0017 



.0062 



72.69 



