PROFIT A BLE EGG FARMING. 
collecting of eggs, and (in suitable districts) the 
fattening of chickens, ducks, etc., finding the 
best possible market- for the produce. In the 
ease of eggs, these are carefully tested before 
they an* sent out, and such as are absolutely 
fresh, are stamped with the registered trade 
mark of the society, which is a guarantee to re¬ 
tailer and consumer of their quality. On each 
egg sold are marks denoting the depot, the pro¬ 
ducer, and the date, enabling the society to 
guarantee the quality both to retailer and con¬ 
sumer. Fxeellent contracts have been secured 
for eggs supplied through the depots of the 
National 1 ’oultrv (frganiznt ion Societ y. Since t he 
opening of collect ion depots at several centers, 
tlu v eggs collected and forwarded have proved 
most satisfactory, and the demand for these 
stamped eggs is increasing more rapidly than 
present supplies. Profits made at any depot 
are divided among the members in accordance 
with the amount of eggs and poultry supplied 
by them.” 
Such manifest improvements in methods, 
and so simple withal, are certain to recommend 
themselves to our intelligent American farmers, 
and the step of establishing regular egg-collect¬ 
ing routes is one certain to be taken. Since a 
radical improvement in marketconditions would 
follow the establishment of such collecting 
routes, it will work the double advantage of put¬ 
ting the product upon the market in better con¬ 
dition. and likewise increase the farmer’s re¬ 
turns for his product. 
An excellent authority informs us that at cer¬ 
tain seasons of the year from one-half to three- 
fourths of the eggs sent to market by the farmers 
of Kansas are absolutely bad; what a tremendous 
waste! The remedy for this state of affairs is 
simply regular and systematic collecting of the 
eggs and shipping to market, aided by a rigid 
breaking up of broody hens and excluding them 
from the pens of layers; where a broody hen is 
allowed to remain on the nest day after day, and 
other hens lay in the same nest it iseasv to under¬ 
stand that the eggs thus incubated for two or 
three days become “struck,” and are thereafter 
useless for human food. Another stop in the 
right direction would be the killing off of all use¬ 
less (and worse than useless!) surplus male's. If 
no male birds were allowed upon the farms ex¬ 
cepting the one needed for breeding, and he 
rigidly confined to the breeding pen with the 
females selected for breeding, there would be no 
“germ of life” in the eggs laid by the other fe¬ 
males, and no danger of their eggs becoming 
“struck” by the* germ’s starting to develop. We 
firmly believe that this evil is much more far- 
reaching than is above indicated. It is known 
that the germ of life in an egg will begin to de¬ 
velop in a steady temperature of 80 to 90 de¬ 
gree's, and such a temperature is frequently en¬ 
countered by eggs brought to the country stores 
to 1 >(' traded (and quite likely held a week or 
two before being sent forward to market), and 
also by eggs shipped to market in common (non¬ 
refrigerator) freight cars; and if such a load of 
eggs was side tracked for a day or two in mid¬ 
summer, the hot sun blazing upon it all day 
would heat it sufficiently to start every fertile 
egg on the way to hatching. 
In “Incubation and its Natural Laws,” Mr. 
Cyphers says:—“During the descent of the egg 
along the oviduct of the fowl, where it is ex¬ 
posed to a temperature of 110 degrees or more, 
the blastoderm undergoes important changes. 
When the egg is laid and becomes cold, the 
changes all but entirely cease, and the blasto¬ 
derm remains inactive; under the influence of 
the higher temperature of natural or artificial 
incubation, the vital activities of the germ are 
brought back into play, and the arrested changes 
go on again. In warm weather changes of the 
same kind as those caused by actual incubation 
may take place, to a certain extent, in the 
interval between laying and incubation.” There 
is the idea clearly stated, and the obvious pre¬ 
vention of the commencing of life-development 
in the eggs is the prevention of the germ of life 
getting into the egg; the remedy is simple, kill 
off the worthless (and more than worthless!) 
male birds, and allow none on the farms except¬ 
ing those needed for breeding. 
The consuming public is coming to appreciate 
the fact that unfertilized eggs are better and 
keep better, and are paying a premium of two 
or three (and even five) cents a dozen for such 
eggs; when the farmers themselves come to 
understand that their hens will lay more eggs 
when not afflicted with the attentions of a male 
bird, there will be decidedly fewer of these per¬ 
nicious creatures left to tease and annoy them. 
Further improvement will most certainly be 
made along the line of the development of the 
egg-producing instincts of the fowls, and what 
an immense improvement can be . made here! 
What a gain it would be if all the fowls of the 
United States could be brought up to even the 
modest eight and a half dozen eggs each, of the 
18 
