Chapter VIL 
COLLECTION AND CARE OF EGGS. CATERING TO THE MARKET. GUARANTEED 
STRICTLY FRESH EGGS. 
great many poultrymen fail of getting 
the best price for their' eggs, and a 
still greater proportion of the farm¬ 
ers fall short of marketing the best 
and getting the best prices. A study of 
the market quotations shows a remarkably 
wide range of prices, and one very soon 
learns that this range of price is deter¬ 
mined by the quality of the eggs marketed. 
This is almost a truism; it applies to every line 
of business and every kind of goods bought and 
sold. If one has a second, or third, or fourth, 
or fifth rate article to sell, he has no right to 
expect the price of a first rate article, and if 
he fails of getting the price of a first rate article 
he is a foolish man who does not ask himself, 
“Why?”—and then set about to reform his 
methods so that he shall have goods which 
merit the best price. 
Freshness is the quality of the greatest im¬ 
portance, and where there is any question of 
the quality the eggs are tested for freshness at 
the outset. If one is located near a city or 
large town he can get a private family trade, 
which will pay a fancy price for strictly-fresh 
new laid eggs; even if at a considerable distance 
from a city or town one can have such a trade, 
by an alliance with a dealer in the city or town. 
The description of the marketing methods em¬ 
ployed at the White Leghorn Poultry Plant in 
Chapter V, explains this. The eggs are put 
up in pasteboard boxes holding one dozen 
each and shipped daily to a dealer (or dealers), 
the latter distributes the eggs to the preferred 
customers. Whether it will pay one to estab¬ 
lish an egg route and deliver guaranteed fresh 
eggs to selected customers, after the manner 
of the familiar milk-route of our cities and 
towns, each poultry man or farmer must deter¬ 
mine for himself. Such an egg route takes 
time; for example, he will start with his eggs in 
the morning, going over his route making de¬ 
liveries, and it will be noon probably before he 
gets back to his home; this means two half-days 
a week for a man and horse, and as the time of 
both man and horse are worth a certain amount, 
it is simply a question of mathematics whether 
the increased price received for the eggs pays a 
profit over the market price of the eggs plus 
the cost of delivery. 
After all the egg routes, etc., are taken into 
account it would have to be acknowledged 
that 99-100 of the eggs produced are marketed 
through the regular channels, and it is the 
general market conditions that we should con¬ 
sider. There is very great room for improving 
the quality, and thus improve the price. After 
the question of freshness has been considered, 
next in importance is the size of the egg and 
color of the shell. An illustration of improve¬ 
ment in quality came to our knowledge on a 
visit to the Industrial Fair at Toronto last 
September. Talking with Professor Graham, 
of the Ontario Agricultural College, he told us 
that in one township a dozen or fifteen miles 
from Guelph, a grain dealer has been interested 
to induce his patrons to improve the quality 
of their poultry; the result being that nearly all 
the poultry raised in that town is Barred Ply¬ 
mouth Rocks or Plymouth Rock grades; so that 
the eggs shipped to the Toronto market from 
that town are larger in size and are of a more 
uniform brown (or brownish) color than from 
any other, and retail dealers gladly pay the 
commission man a cent a dozen premium 
above the price of other eggs shipped into To¬ 
ronto. At first thought this does not seem 
to be of tremendous importance, but if we con¬ 
sider the yearly total of eggs produced in the 
United States, we see that it would make a 
very great difference in dollars. Even if a 
hen lays but ten dozen eggs in a year it mears 
10c increased profit to her owner—if she lays 
15 dozen it means 15c increased profit; it is 
commonly estimated that a hen will pay her 
owner one dollar profit in a year, and the in- 
110 
