MARKETING EGGS 461 



candling 10,000 eggs daily, the eggs for sale to retailers are 

 placed on the market in grades as follows: one, two, checks, 

 dirties, and so on. 



Dirty Eggs. — ^The dirty eggs that go to market do not bring 

 as much when sold to the city consumer as they would if they 

 were washed and perfectly clean. As a result of this, the cross- 

 road country merchant makes allowance for all such shortage 

 when he buys the eggs from the farmer. The reform must 

 begin at the farm, and all move together and not market any 

 eggs not first class, as the merchant is afraid of offending the 

 countryman if he tells him he cannot pay so much for the 

 dirty or small eggs, and hence he goes on silently and, unknown 

 to the producer, making his allowances so that he may not 



Fig. 184, — A bunch of dirty eggs. Dirty eggs should not be sent to the 



• market. 



lose money by his transactions, hence all countrymen selUng 

 to the country merchant loses his proportionate amount. 



The city grocer, in his eagerness to sell his eggs, frequently 

 places them in a show-window, where in the hot summer time 

 the eggs soon spoil. Under these conditions deterioration goes 

 on by bounds and leaps; he would not think of setting his but- 

 ter or lard out that way, and if the consumer says anything 

 the grocer blames the producer for selling "rotten" eggs. 

 Neither should the housewife or cook place the eggs she pur- 

 chases from the store or elsewhere on top of the cupboard or 

 other warm place, where they may undergo considerable 

 change in the course of a week or ten days that may elapse 

 before they are all used- Eggs being a perishable product 



