58 BULLETIN 224, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
SEASON oF 1912. 
CHANGES IN CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT. 
The construction and equipment of D house needed but little further alteration to 
bring it into accord with the information gained during the previous season. One of 
the most important additions in equipment made during the season of 1912 was 
the installation in the breaking room of a sanitary washbowl with running water. 
This convenience saved considerable time, because formerly whenever a girl broke 
an infected egg she had to go outside of the room to wash her hands. 
In the season of 1912 the passageway outside the breaking room was converted into 
an anteroom opening into the breaking room on one side and into a newly constructed 
freezer on the other. The wash room, which formerly occupied this passage, was 
transferred to a large storeroom into which the third door of the anteroom opened. 
The fourth door of the anteroom led to a toilet room for the breakers. 
The new freezer was well insulated, the walls and ceiling were enameled white, 
and the floor was made of hard maple. Along two sides of the room were brine-pipe 
racks on which the 30-pound cans of liquid egg were set while freezing. One side 
of thisroomis pictured in Plate XIII, figure 1. The proximity of this freezer to the 
breaking room greatly facilitated the disposal of the eggs after they were broken. 
CONDITIONS PREVAILING EVERY THIRD WEEK FROM APRIL TO SEPTEMBER. 
Visit No. 1 (May 6 to 11). 
At this time the breaking stock consisted of small, cracked, and dirty eggs sorted 
from the current receipts of this house and other houses within convenient shipping 
distance. 
On the first day of the visit the eggs were not being candled. It was observed that 
the girls in the breaking room were annoyed by the frequency of the bad eggs which 
could have been eliminated by candling. The management on the next day began 
candling the eggs bought from other houses for breaking purposes. This change in 
routine, however, only partially corrected the trouble in the breaking room, because 
the work of the candlers was inefficient and because the current receipts of D house 
were not graded before going to the breakers. 
Most of the egg breakers had worked the previous season, consequently they had 
received the benefit of the week’s training in September, 1911, when they were 
taught the principles of bacterial cleanliness as applied to the handling of a food 
product and as far as possible the essential points to be observed in the grading of eggs 
out of the shell. These instructions were codified and a written copy given each 
girl to be followed by her in her work during the ensuing season. Their observance 
had considerable influence on the cleanliness of the product. In substance the rules 
were as follows: 
1. Hands and uniform must be kept clean. 
2. Do not use any apparatus coming in contact with food egg unless it has previ- 
ously been both washed and sterilized. 
3. Breaking the eggs.—Grasp the egg with the thumb, first and second fingers of the 
right hand. Give the egg a quick blow on the sharp part of the knife with sufficient 
force to make an even cut just through the shell and its membrane. Quickly turn 
the crack upward so there will be no leakage from the egg while it is being trans- 
ferred from the knife to the cup. With the first and second fingers on the ends of the 
egg, use the tips of the thumbs to pull the two halves of the shell apart. To empty 
the shell turn each half directly upside down so that they do not touch each other 
and drain for the length of time to count one, two, three. Do not let the cups 
touch the kniie. 
4. When separating white from yolk, have three cups on the tray. Put two on the 
side which gets the best light, far enough back to be able to crack the eggs on the 
knife well beyond thecups. Put the other cup on the other side of the tray behind the 
breaking place on the knife. Put the white into the first cup, the yolk into the 
second. The other cup on the opposite side is for soft or doubtful eggs. Never sepa- 
rate dirty eggs by the shell method. or 
5. Drying fingers.—Only the tips of the fingers should touch the eggs. They should 
be dried frequently on tissue paper. : 
6. Use two cups and, unless bad eggs are prevalent, put two and no more into each 
cup before emptying. ; 
7. Smell and look at every cup of eggs carefully beforeemptying, =. 
8. When emptying cups, pour out eggs, then touch edge of cup against inside of can 
at least 2 inches below the rim. Do not, therefore, fill cans too full. 
9. Eggs to be discarded.—Musty, moldy, and sour eggs, eggs with a bloody or green 
white, mixed rots, eggs with a stuck yolk, white rots, and eggs with a bad odor. 
