414 



COMMERCIAL POULTRY RAISING 



the teamster and the retailer. Strictly fresh eggs, generally 

 known as nearby hennery, which tickle the palates of the well 

 to do at the rate of eighty cents to a dollar a dozen, come largely 

 from the environs of the large cities, where they are produced by 

 poultrymen who make a specialty of fancy eggs. Such eggs 

 constitute a very small percentage of the trade, however, — about 

 ten per cent, — and their damage aside from breakage is not ap- 

 preciable because most of the shipments are made by fast ex- 

 press. For the present we will not concern ourselves with this 

 class of eggs. 



Fig. 268. — "A full house.' 



(Courtesy Million Egg Farm) 



The great bulk of the egg trade must travel a thousand or two 

 thousand miles before it reaches its destination. These are the 

 eggs wherein the serious losses occur. Not so much because of 

 the distances transported, though this is an important factor, 

 but because of the numerous hands through which they pass, 

 and the personal equation in each instance, and because the 

 character of the egg is such that any slight defect visited upon it 

 at its place of origin rapidly accumulates further deterioration. 

 A slightly heated egg on the farm, or an egg with a blind check, 

 so termed because the crack is not visible without the aid of a 

 strong candle, may reach the market in such an advanced state 



