1 Noy., 1898. ] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 349 
barrel is full, when 2 inches more salt are needed on top. The lid is then 
securely fastened and kept in a cool dry place, turning the box from time to 
time. This method has been known to keep them as fresh as new-laid eges 
for a period of nine months. This system is the more satisfactory from the 
fact that the eggs come out quite clean, and have not the slightest appearance 
of having undergone any process; while, at the same time, the salt packing 
can be purchased at a low cost, and can be used for years. The hot method is 
very simple, but not so extensively resorted to in Australia. The process is to 
heat water to about 150 degrees I’, place the eggs for preserving in a wire 
strainer, shaped like a basket or bucket, and dip the whole into the water, 
allowing them to remain immersed for thirty or forty seconds, when the pellicle 
under the shell coagulates, thus excluding the air from the inner eggs. But 
the cool method is perhaps the most effective of all, and most simple. The 
eggs are collected and packed in boxes or baskets, and placed in the freezing or 
cool chamber, at a temperature slightly above freezing point—say about 32 to 
36 degrees. If this temperature is kept evenly throughout, they will keep for 
any length of time, and in twelve months are as good as “new-laid eggs.” 
The egg is held in suspension, and no process of decay takes place ; consequently, 
they retain all their original qualities, and such cannot be said of those treated 
in many other processes. Another cheaper cool method may be tried by placing 
the eggs in a receptacle in a cool cellar at a temperature below 50 degrees, 
where they are known to keep fresh for three months at a time. ‘To prove the 
statement of eggs being new laid after being put into the freezing chamber for 
a time is that they have been set and hatched after months of keeping. 
THE EGG TRADE—A CHANCE FOR POULTRY BREEDERS. 
Tur market which exists in Great Britain for eggs is shown by the fact 
that during the first quarter of this year total importations amounted to 
2,711,914 great hundreds, of a value of £887,503, which was a decrease of 3:26 
per cent. on the first quarter of 1897, an increase of 14:95 per cent. on the same 
period of 1596, and of 12°50 per cent. on 1895. The chief sources of supply 
were: — Germany, 795,356 great hundreds, £229,857; Belgium, 742,508, 
£232,710; France, 540,799, £217,055 ; Denmark, 842,820, £121,866; Russia, 
15,966, £4,902 ; Canada, 8,670, £3,137. It will be of interest to Australian 
poultry farmers, who would have to preserve the eggs in some manner before 
they could be shipped, to know that a series of experiments in the preservation 
of eggs was carried on last year in Germany. After eight months of preserva- 
tion, 400 eggs, divided into twenty different parcels for that many methods of 
experiment, were examined, with heterogenous results. The most successful 
methods, with the percentage of loss, were:—Varnished with sward, 20 per 
cent. bad ; preserved in wood ashes, 20 percent. bad.; treated with boric acid 
and water glass, 20 per cent. bad ; treated with manganate of potash, 20 per 
cent. bad; varnished with vaseline, all good ; preserved in lime water, all good; 
preserved in a solution of water glass, all good. The last three methods are 
considered the best ones, and especially the preservation in the solution of 
water glass, as varnishing the eggs in vaseline takes too much time, and the 
treatment with lime water sometimes communicates to the eggs a disagreeable 
odour and taste. There is one drawback with eggs preserved in a solution of 
water glass—the shell easily bursts when placed in boiling water. It is said 
this may be avoided by cautiously piercing the shell with a strong needle. 
There are in the United States about 2,000 establishments devoted 
exclusively to the sale and distribution of food products wholesale. ‘There are 
many others that combine wholesale and retail trade. These establishments. 
employ from 12,000 to 20,000 bright, active, intelligent, and energetic 
