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Show GHAGKED-EGG LOSS Pack in Spring so as to Prevent ' All Shell Damage. Specialists of United States Department Depart-ment of Agriculture Recommend Use of New Standard Cases With Strong Fillers. (From the United States Department of Agriculture.) About 50 per cent of the egg crop of the whole year is produced during the months of March, April, May and June. It is during March, April and May also that the eggs are of the best quality and most desirable for cold storage. Nearly 86 per cent of all the eggs so stored go into storage during March, April and May. It is especially necessary, therefore, the department's egg-handling special- 4 ) Excelsior Buffing, Properly Used, the Case Makes an Even, Soft Cushion Cush-ion Which Prevents Eggs From Shifting. ists say. to see that the early spring pack is well put up in new standard cases with new strong fillers and fiats and that cracked eggs, even the very "lightest checks,'.' be rigidly excluded. Cracked eggs, the practical studies of these investigators have established, estab-lished, are the cause of great trouble and loss to the egg industry from producer pro-ducer to consumer. Every time an egg is handled on the farm or elsewhere else-where it is likely to get shell damage. dam-age. Occasionally the hen cracks an egg, but that is seldom. The farmer cracks some on the farm, and by the time he has hr.uled them to the country coun-try store or to the shipper investigators investiga-tors find that approximately 4 per cent are cracked and one-tenth of one per cent mashed or leaking. If the country storekeeper rehandles the eggs and hauls them to the egg Excelsior Buffing, Improperly Used, Increases Rather Than Prevents Egg Breakage in the Case and Distributes Dis-tributes Pressure Unevenly on the Top Layer, shipper, the number of cracked eggs is increased to about 6 per cent. In addition, three-tenths of 1 per cent are mashed eggs or leakers that must be thrown out. If, however, the country storekeeper sends the cases of eggs to a nearby shipper by local freight, the total of cracked eggs has risen at the end of the journey to approximately 7 per cent, and 1 per cent more are mashed or leaking. The damage when eggs reach the big cities after a haul of 1,000 miles or more will depend upon the quality of the egg packing, the way the lot is placed in the car, and the way the railroad hauls the car, esimoially when switching. When the eggs are shipped in car lots and both shippers and carriers do their work well, transit damage is kept down to as little as 1 per cent, including includ-ing cracked, mashed, and leaking eggs. Approximately one egg in two cases gets mashed or becomes a leaker on the railroad trip. But when eggs are shipped in lens than car lots, the transit tran-sit damage is generally multiplied many times. Cracked Eggs Lower Prices. Because there are so many lightly cracked eggs and because they will bring a lower price if put in cases by themselves, most shippers have got into the habit of including about 5 per cent of cracked eggs in the cases of supposedly sound eggs. Very often the receiver blames the railroad for all the light as well as the heavy damage in the case; and since the inclusion of the 5 per cent of lightly light-ly damaged eggs has become generally known, it commonly is supposed that it is these eggs which, being weak, are further damaged in transit. The investigators of the department, however, how-ever, find that these light cracks, or even dents, if well packed, loaded, and transported, am only one-third more liable to damage than are the sound eggs similarly handled. If the cases are well packed and shipped in well-loaded car lots, ' the additional liability to damage is only about one-fifth one-fifth of an egg per case. From the viewpoint of transportation alone the 5 per cent of lightly cracked eggs appeals to be comparatively unimportant. unimpor-tant. Cracked Eggs Cause Serious Loss If Stored. From the viewpoint of cold storage, however, fven lightly cracked eggs are of greaA importance. The investigators inves-tigators fim' hat about 50 per cent of the cracked e,gs are rotten by November, Novem-ber, generally because of a growth of mold. SonieT'nies the moldy crack resting against the filler infects it and the egg in the next cell becomes moldy. Each leaking egg causes about two eggs besides itself to rot. On the other hand, good early spring egg3 with sound, clean shells show less than 1 per cent loss from decay by November. In other words, six eggs in every dozen cracked eggs will rot, while only one sound egg in 12 dozen will rot, all other conditions being equal. The cracked eggs are a heavy economic loss. Loss $94 Per Carload. Eggs at the eastern seaboard during dur-ing the early spring are commonly worth about 20 cents a dozen. Carrying Car-rying charges, including insurance, are usually about 2 cents a dozen. Therefore,' the nine cracked eggs which are spoiled by November show a total loss, not only of their value when they were stored, which was about 15 cents, but also the carrying charges, or a total of 16 cents. About ten cracked eggs out of the 19, on the average, will not spoil, but are much lower in grade when coming out of storage than the sound eggs. They will be sold for about 33 per cent less than the sound, good eggs, making, mak-ing, on a 25-cent basis, another loss of 7 cents, or a total loss due to cracked eggs alone of 23 cents a case, or about $94 on a carload of 400 cases. This loss of 23 cents a case, which is believed to be a conservative estimate, esti-mate, quickly mounts up to imposing figures when the vast number of cases of eggs that are stored is taken into consideration. In 45 cold-storage houses alone, according to the report of the American Warehousemen's association, as-sociation, about 3,750,000 cases of eggs were in storage on July 1, 1915. If these cases suffered the average damage, dam-age, in these warehouses alone there would be a loss to the country of 5S81.000 that might have been saved to the egg industry from producer to the consumer if shippers had been more careful in packing their early spring eggs. |