2 BULLETIN 846, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
quality was analyzed in different laboratories. The present inves- 
tigation was undertaken in order to critically study these methods, 
and to ascertain whether they might be so standardized as to give 
concordant results when a number of analysts examined the same 
product simultaneously. A further object was to learn whether the 
results of the standardized methods would truly reflect the known 
quality of carefully prepared samples. 
PLAN OF INVESTIGATION. 
Since the great bulk of frozen egg products is Scrat in the Mid- 
dle West, it seemed advisable to have the samples prepared in that 
section. Moreover, it appeared that valuable information could be 
obtained by preparing samples in different geographical locations, as 
Michigan or Minnesota, where the eggs while in the shell would have | 
been Grancported and held under fairly cool climatic conditions, 
Tllnois or Indiana, where the climatic conditions would be somewhat 
less favorable, and Kansas or Missouri, where the weather would be 
hot. It was planned to ship these samples for examination to a 
central point where all the analysts were assembied, in order to 
eliminate as completely as possible all variable factors. Difficulties 
in transportation in 1917 made it doubtful as to whether frozen 
egg samples shipped from a distance would arrive in proper condition 
for analysis at a central pomt. For this reason a trip was made to 
ege-breaking plants in the States named, to ascertain whether eggs 
were reaching any one large concentrating and breaking center from 
the same general sources of supply as those used in the other locations, 
and to learn whether railroad transportation of samples could be 
depended upon. It was found that shipping frozen egg samples in 
small lots from outlying points to any certral location would be a 
precarious undertaking and inadvisable. It was found also that in 
one concentrating center eggs were being received constantly from all 
of the important producing States, in many instances after long rail- 
road hauls. For that reason, those in charge of the investigation 
decided to prepare the samples in August, when eggs are recognized 
as being of the poorest quality, in this concentrating center where 
checks, dirties, and current receipts were being received from distant 
poimts, with the attendant possibilities of deterioration. Thus, 
samples made from the lowest grade eggs which might legitimately 
be used for food purposes were assured. It was further determined 
that the samples should be examined in the same city in which they 
were prepared, in order to eliminate all railroad transportation. 
A series of samples was prepared from the different grades made 
commercially, allowing the breakers to follow their usual system of 
grading; a similar series in which the grading was done by members of 
the Bureau of Chemistry; and a series including a composite sample 
