438 COMMERCIAL POULTRY RAISING 



«k 

 The farmer is therefore paid a fair price for what he previously 



wasted — usually from fifteen to twenty-five cents per dozen. 



Eggs are preserved in a number of ways. For convenience 

 they may be divided into two general classes: The use of low 

 temperature, from 31 to 32 degrees F.; and by excluding the air 

 by coating, covering or immersing in a solution or dry substance. 

 The first classification is the only way they can be preserved on 

 a commercial scale, i. e., cold storage. Two methods are fol- 

 lowed: storing the eggs in crates in a fairly dry atmosphere, 

 and removing them from their shells and freezing them in bulk 

 in cans containing about fifty pounds each. 



Under proper conditions, when fresh-laid eggs are placed in 

 storage, very little change takes place in their quality, except 

 evaporation. But they must not be allowed to remain long out 

 of storage before they are used. It is failure on the part of the 

 consumer and retailer to observe this point that results in most 

 of the difficulties with storage eggs. 



As for the other methods, their aim being to exclude air con- 

 veying micro-organisms to the interior of the egg, and for sup- 

 pressing the growth of those already present, the results obtained 

 are by no means uniform, which is largely due to the condition 

 of the eggs at the time they are placed in storage. 



One of the old-fashioned domestic methods was to pack the 

 eggs in bran, or in salt, or by covering them ^\■ith limewater. 

 Sometimes the eggs remained in good flavor, other times the}' 

 spoiled. Their degree of preservation was commonly referred 

 to as liick; whereas it was chiefly due to ignorance. Only eggs 

 of known freshness and quality, and preferably non-fertile eggs, 

 should be preserved by these methods. 



Twenty methods of preserving eggs were tested, with the fol- 

 lowing results, according to the Department of Agriculture: 

 Those preserved in salt water, brine, were all bad, not rotten, 

 but unpalatable, the salt having penetrated the eggs. Of the 

 eggs preserved by wrapping in paper, 80 per cent were bad ; and 

 the same proportion of those preserved in a solution of salic\lic 

 acid and glycerin were unfit for use. Seventy per cent of the 



