266 QURENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Apnin, 1902. 
8. Eggs dipped momentarily in sulphuric acid, washed and dipped in alka- 
line ammonium oxalate, then stored in large bottle. All the eggs very bad, and 
contents offensive. 
These experiments corroborate many of the results obtained in the previous 
year, and are held to afford further proof of the excellence of the eggs preserved 
in saturated lime-water. Mr. Shutt thinks that, on the whole, 2 per cent. 
sodium silicate gives better results than the 10 per cent. solution, but he isalso— 
of the opinion that lime-water is superior to both as an egg preservative. 
‘Moreover, it is cheaper and pleasanter to handle.” 
TESTING THE AGE OF EGGS. 
_ . The Deutsche Landwirtschaftliche. Presse of the 28th September. last 
publishes an account of a method of determining the age of eggs, which has 
been tested and awarded a medal by the Society of Saxon Poultry-breeders at 
Halle, and has also received prizes elsewhere. eS 
' The apparatus is based on the physiological property:that the air-bubble 
at the blunt end of the egg increases in size with the growth of the embryo. 
When the egg is placed in liquid it has consequently an increasing tendency to 
become vertical, with the blunt end uppermost. The apparatus itself consists 
of a glass vessel, bearing at the back lines drawn at various angles, each line 
being marked with the age. The vessel is filled with some harmless liquid, in 
which the eggs to be tested are laid. Hach egg will take up a certain position; 
and, according to its age, its longer axis will be more or less inclined to the 
horizon. The direction of this axis is compared with the lines at the back of 
the vessel, and the age of the ege read off at the line to which its axis is 
parallel. 
A new-laid egg lies horizontally at the bottom of the vessel. An ege three 
to five days old raises itself from the horizontal, so that its axis makes an angle 
of about 20 degrees. At eight days old this angle has increased to about 45 
degrees, at fourteen days it is 60 degrees, at about three weeks it is 75 degrees, 
and after four weeks it stands upright on the pointed end. A bad egg, or one 
more than five weeks old, floats. With practice it is stated that the age can 
be told to a day. 
POULTRY NOTES. 
Oxrp Hens.—It is no wonder that many people say their hens don’t pay. 
One common reason for this is that, as eggs are the paying item, their hens are 
kept until they are too old, and are all the time eating their heads off. Indeed, 
most people do not know the ages of their fowls, and they may take for table 
a young fowl in full lay, while a four-year-old that may lay twenty eges in the 
year is walking about, 1 daily loss to the owner. A strict note of each year’s 
hens should be kept where too many fowls are kept for the memory to be relied 
upon. Another source of loss is the allowing a hen to go three or four months 
with two or three chickens, sometimes one. It ought to be a maxim always to 
set two or three fowls at once; then if hatchings are poor, one hen may take 
the lot, and the other two may be set for the second time, if so, taking care to 
take them off the nest every day for about half-an-hour and feeding them 
as much corn as they can eat, or sent back to the yard and well fed, when they 
will lay in two or three weeks. Again, no watch is kept on the layers to find 
the best, these to be kept over the second year, while the poor layers are eaten 
or sold. Many a time very poor layers are kept over for a second year that 
have not paid their way the first season. When the best layers are known, too, 
their eggs can be used for sitting. When there are a good many hens kept, 
say over a dozen, there is usually an outstanding good layer; her eges should 
