PREPARATION OF FROZEN AND DRIED EGGS. 61 
Some experiments were conducted during this week to check the cleanliness of the 
routine of the breaking room. For this investigation four samples of eggs in the shell 
were procured—one of clean seconds, one of cracked eggs, and two of dirty eggs. The 
samples, consisting of 12 dozen eggs each, were divided equally into two portions. 
One was broken commercially in the packing house, and the other was opened asepti- 
cally in the laboratory. These comparative experiments, listed in Table 27, not only 
indicate the superior quality of the breaking stock at this season, but also show how 
closely the aseptic methods of the laboratory can be approximated under commercial 
conditions. 
TABLE 27.—Comparative samples of eggs oe commercially and aseptically (D house, 
1912 
aw)e 
{Samples collected June 19, 1912.] 
Bacteria per | Gas- Ammoniacal 
gram on plain Rois nitropen Num- 
: agar incu- INE | yj 4 olin ' 
si Description and | pated at—_ |bacteria eae merbiod. Mois- be Method of 
R o. | Size of sample. er _| per gram ure. | gic. opening. 
- gram in ; ae 
20°C. | 37°C, | lactose Wet | Dry fares 
“lame | iOL1e: basis. | basis. 
Visit No. 3. Per ct.| Per ct. | Perct. 
4572} Cracked, 6 dozen |140, 000) 75, 000 Olwzstwess ee cet 0.0019) 0.0071] 73, 22 2| Commercial. 
4573| 2... ¢ GO seers ces 200 350 Olan ore eeiccet .0018) .0065) 72.09 1} Aseptic. 
4585| Leakers of No. 200 100 Ole es Ce ree - 0019} - .0068} 72.03 0} Commercial. 
4573, 12dozen. ; 
4578 oe seconds, 6 600 300 0} 0in1,000; .0016) .0059) 73.00 0 Do. 
ozen. 
4579lo.. OM eadcoee= 0 0 0 0 in 1,000) .0017 - 0061) 72.13 2| Aseptic. 
4576) Dirty, 6dozen.. 400 400 10 0in 1,000) .0017 - 0065] 73. 85 0} Commercial. 
45771. 25-- GO neers 200 50 0 0in 1,000) .0017 0061} 72, 29 0} Aseptic. 
4581)..... COniweeist 13,000} 3,000 1, 000 2,000} .0017 - 0063) 72. 87 0| Commercial. 
1 USP age COM Seeks ce 150 0 O| | OimtO00!. COLTS O0GL! 72502|52222- Aseptic. 
Visit No. 4 (July 9 to 12). 
During the interval between the third and fourth visits the weather had been warm, 
with the result that the percentage of seconds in receipts increased and many of the 
fertile eggs contained hatch spots or blood rings. A typical heated egg is pictured in 
Plate II, U. S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin No. 51. On account of ineffi- 
cient candling many blood rings found their way to the breaking room, thereby increas- 
ing the difficulties of grading as well as necessitating frequent changes of apparatus. 
This poor work led one to suspect that the candlers might be just as careless in 
throwing away edible eggs as they were in not eliminating the bad eggs. That this 
suspicion was avell founded is shown by the fact that when two cases of discards from 
the candling room were broken one contained 9.7 per cent food eggs and the other 
the astonishingly high percentage of 29.4 per cent. This was too great a loss to be 
passed unnoticed, therefore the candling foreman was instructed to recandle daily 
the eggs discarded by the different candlers. This work was a part of the candling 
room routine for the remainder of the season. 
Up to the present time the girls had worked practically without supervision and 
according to the instructions given them at the beginning of the season. Now, in 
order to train new girls and on account of the increased difficulty in grading, one 
of the cleanest ni most experienced egg breakers was given charge of the room. 
Her duties were as follows: 
1, Enforce instructions to breakers. 
2. Supervise washing and sterilizing of apparatus and supply of same to breaking 
room. 
3. Ifa breaker is dirty, disobedient, unable to grade, or inefficient, consult with the 
management regarding her discharge. 
4. If candling is not satisfactory, report to the management. 
5. Decide on doubtful eggs. 
6. Supervise cleaning of breaking room, toilet room, hallway, and wash room. 
Samples taken during this visit and also those taken by an employee of the plant 
during the investigator’s absence showed practically no change in the bacterial count 
or the amount of ammoniacal nitrogen of the commercial product. Previous work on 
hatch-spot eggs proved them to be nearly sterile when opened aseptically and to con- 
tain low quantities of ammoniacal nitrogen. Therefore one would not expect that the 
presence of a large percentage of these eggs in the breaking stock would materially 
affect either its bacterial content or its chemical composition. 
