40 BULLETIN 1385, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Eggs are purchased in Denmark by weight, but they are sold at 
wholesale in England by the 10 dozen or long hundred, with weight- 
used as a descriptive term. For instance, the Danish cooperatives 
will offer eggs to English dealers at 20 shillings per long hundred for 
16-pound eggs, and 21 shillings for 18-pound eggs. If they can get 
the increased price for the larger eggs they are grateful. The'ir ex- 
perience has been, however, that a percentage increase in price com- 
mensurate with the increase in weight is rarely, if ever, obtained. 
Often eggs weighing 18 and 19 pounds have brought no more than 
the 15 and 16 pound eggs. In other words, the demand for the extra 
large egfi: at an increased price is very limited. The difference in 
price per long hundred between lG-pound eggs and 18 or 19 pound 
e^<z^ is rarely more than 1 shilling (approximately 23 cents). Thus 
when eggs are offered at 20 shillings per 10 dozen for 16-pound eggs 
and 21 shillings per 10 dozen for 18-pound eggs the percentage in- 
crease in price is only ."> per cent, as against 12 1 /. per cent increase in 
food value. Furthermore, as eggs go higher in price this percentage 
increase becomes less and less. 
Thus Danish experience has conclusively shown that at present 
it is impossible to receive higher prices commensurate with the 
increase in size of the eggs. Danish operators also admit that the 
purchase of eggs by weight has resulted in a decrease in profits to 
the producers of eggs as a Avhole, and that the payment by weight 
is not fair to the producer of normal eggs as his returns are dimin- 
ished by the amounts paid for the heavy eggs. They further state 
that the market prefers, and is satisfied Avith, eggs which weigh from 
15 to 1() pounds per long hundred, which is equivalent to 24 to 26 
ounces per dozen. These results are confirmed by the cooperative 
Q^ packers in the Netherlands, who deplore the fact that they can 
not obtain increased juices for their largest eggs commensurate with 
their greater weight. 
TESTING AND GRADING OF EGGS 
European eggs are tested for their interior quality by the use of 
open candles, by special egg-candling devices similar to those used in 
the United States, by holding the e<ig in the left hand and shading 
the eyes with the right hand, by holding the i^^ at the end of a 
tube placed in front of the eye. and by specially equipped pocket 
flash lights. They are candled by the use of one-hole candles, two- 
hole candles, and multiple-hole candles wherein trays of eggs con- 
taining from 60 to 120 eggs are placed over the light or lights, whose 
rays are thrown through the e^s into a dark space above. 
In the exporting countries two methods of candling generally pre- 
vail — one, the candling device, such as is generally used in the 
United States, consisting of a light inside a metal cylinder with a 
hole opposite the flame or filament (fig. 16) ; the other consists of 
perforated trays on which the eggs are placed above a bank of elec- 
tric lights. These two methods and the exposed flame of a candle 
are also used in the wholesale markets of the cities. 
The methods of holding the e^ in the left hand and shading it 
with the right and the use of a tube are usually used in the sale of 
eggs from the retailer to the consumer in open markets or in shops 
that have no electric light. Some of the retail shops which sell eggs 
