BULLETIN" 51, U. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGEICXJLTUKE. 
and 0.0015 per cent nitrogen, respectively. The analyses of summer 
eggs made in the western egg-prodiicing district are comparatively 
few, but since their composition proved to be like that of the eggs 
studied in the general egg-handling investigation it was not deemed 
necessary to multiply them beyond the number needed to confirm 
existing data. 
The moisture content of thfe summer egg is of interest. It may be 
that there is a relation between the amount of water present in the 
egg and its resistance to decay. A study, in another connection, of 
perfectly fresh eggs from a well-cared-for flock during different 
seasons, when the fowls showed physiological variations, is given in 
Table 2. 
Table 2. — Water content of fresh eggs. 
Date. 
Number 
of 
samples. 
Indi- 
vidual 
eggs. 
Moisture. 
White. 
Yolk. 
Feb. ■" 8 to Mar. 16 
7 
/8 whites. . . 
\7 yolks.... 
181 
} 1S.3 
54 
Per cent. 
87.90 
88.19 
87.99 
Per cent. 
47.44 
Aug. 5 to Sept. 17.. 
47.96 
Oct. 5 to Nov. 2 
47.54 
It will be seen that in August and September, when the industry 
considers the quality of the eggs lowest, the maximum quantity of 
water is found in both white and yolk. In the early spring, when 
eggs are undoubtedly of highest quality, the water content is lowest, 
and in the cool days of autumn it occupies a medium position. The 
statement of the increased water content of summer eggs is not made 
authoritatively, but only as a promising line of investigation on this 
'subject. It can be emphatically stated, however, that analytical dif- 
ferences in tenths of per cent may, in so specialized a tissue as an 
egg, carry with them marked variations in physiologic functions and 
chemical stability. 
The fat of an egg is almost exclusively in the yolk. According to 
Pennington ^ the ether extract of the yolk varies from 33.33 to 31.44 
per cent* the average for 236 eggs examined being 32.68 per cent. 
"MARKET FRESH" EGGS. 
The eggs from which the preceding information was obtained can 
not be accepted as either a standard or an index of the eggs supplied 
to the people for food, because modern conditions of living and 
sources of food supplies make it impossible to furnish the market 
with eggs of uniform quality and minimum age. It is necessary, 
therefore, as already stated, to study the common market grades 
of shell eggs accepted by the housewife and compare these with the 
iLoc. cit. 
