MARKET WISE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 102, 2 May 1930, Page 17

MARKET WISE.

EGGS—NEW AND OLD.

ARE YOU ALL DOING YOUE BEST?

A lady correspondent, who does not keep poultry, but who has evidently a sense of humour, judging by the wording of her letter, thinks that some of the poultry-breeders should be shot. Last Monday week her husband had two eggs for breakfast, one of which had streaks of blood in it, showing that it had been sat upon by a-hen for some few hours at least, or was discarded from an incubator and marketed by a dishonest person. On the Wednesday morning the top of one egg' was lightly tapped and it finished the rest of the breaking by itself. Her husband went to work "in a temper, and she claims that the baby caught a cold while she - was airing the room to get rid of the effluvia, as she did not wish., her husband to have any unpleasant recollection on his return. The lady goes on to state: <c What is the use of my knowing all I do about poultry and writing to the papers if I cannot make the poultry-breeder provide fresh eggs for a man's breakfast, who has to work hard all the day, not to mention the injustice to the baby." As before mentioned, the letter was somewhat tumorous, but really there ia a serious side to it. The poultrybreeders generally are not marketing their produce to the best advantage. There are a very few articles of diet which will equal the new-laid egg produced under normal conditions, and there are few things more objectionable than a stale egg.

The hen is in a very few cases to blame. Perhaps one. egg in two or three thousand in the full laying season may have a small blood spot, but this will he objectionable only to the eye; there is not any bad taste or odour. A hen may lay an absolutely fresh egg which may have a decidedly objectionable flavour or even smell, due to wrong feeding, and the owner is to blame. The continual feeding of musty food will taint the eggs. Certain foods, if fed in even small quantities, will flavour the egg. Tβ question .of feeding for really high-class egg-production is a subject which we could safely leave for the next couple of years. The trouble often starts before the egg leaves the nest. The hen which lays the egg sits on the egg for a little while, then another hen uses the same nest, sitting on the first egg, and in this " manner eight, ten or a dozen hens may all lay in the one nest. This, especially in the hot weather, is sufficient to start the germ growing, and the keeping quality of the egg is lost. Eggs may also be tainted by the nesting material or by soiled nests, or by keeping the eggs in too warm situation; for instance, only a few days back I saw a number of duck eggs which had been washed, and had evidently been placed in the sun to dry, or they had been -washed out of doors early in the morning and forgotten. .Now, the keeping quality of those eggs was sadly deteriorated, and if the eggs had been intended for incubation purposes they would have been a failure. Damp or musty packing material when sending to market deterioates the quality, also exposure in sunny windows, being exposed for sale adjacent to other products, such, as onions, lemons, oranges, and, to a lesser degree, apples. It should be remembered that the price of any product is reeulated by the demand for the same, therefore it will pay poultrybreeders to give more attention to the keeping qualities of the hen fruit, a3 the Americans term it. It should not be a difficult matter to increase the local consumption of eggs by 25 to 50 per cent 'l we went the right way about it. I hope it will not be ne'eessary for the poultrykeepers of New Zealand to go down into the depths which tausht the Danes, or the Californian fruitgrowers, the lesson of-marketing their products on their present high scale. There is no market for any product at the present time so little prospected as the market for eggs. The consumer demands quality in eggs, almost more than in anything else, and it is the hope in every consumer's mind that some day, some time, they will be able to obtain the quality of an egg which they desire. That is'the main factor in maintaining consumption at even the level-which it has. The consumer want 3 a definite thing in eggs. The backyard man and the commercial producer have the article which the consumer wants. Attempts to bridge the gap between the producer and the consumer are being made, but as yet it is only -'i frinse of the consumers and a very small proportion of producers that are being reached. The producer owes it to.himaeif in a regular business merchandising sense to see that the. gap is bridged. . .The opportunity is nere. As large grazing areas are settled and the production ot beef is restricted it. will be found that; the consumption, of poultry ■ and eggs will yastlyf increase. I remember the time when the .United . States shipped poultry to London, but I understand that at the" present time they cannot meet their own requirements. The move mu£ U come from the producer. It is more in his interests than in those of anyone else that such improvement should come ftsHUt.