COLD STORAGE 



437 



could buy eggs in the spring for ten cents a dozen." True; but 

 at that time it was difficult to buy eggs in the fall and winter for 

 any price. They were not to be had in any quantity. Hens 

 lay very few eggs in the autumn, especially on general farms; 

 which farm flocks produce about 80 per cent of the country's 

 supply. It is a perfectly natural condition. The old hens are 

 in the molt, and the pullets have not reached maturity; and not 

 until scientific methods were perfected, such as artificial incu- 

 bating and brooding, and improved housing and feeding, was it 

 possible to obtain any sort of a yield except in the spring and 

 early summer. 



{Courtesy Pelaluma Chamber of Commerce) 



Fig. 279. — California type of laying house. Note that there are no dropping 



boards. 



In earlier times eggs were marketed at the time of and near 

 the place where they were produced. During the spring and 

 summer months there was an over-production ; farmers found it 

 difficult to find a market for their eggs, and at times were lucky 

 to get five cents a dozen. In the South and Southwest it has 

 only been in very recent years that the farmers ever bothered to 

 collect their eggs during these seasons, they were that unprofit- 

 able. To-day conditions are very different. Since the advent 

 of the cold storage system and improved methods of transporta- 

 tion, we are able to take advantage of this over-production, and 

 to preserve it for our needs when there is no production. 



