HOW TO TELL FRESH EGGS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 110, 1 February 1908, Page 3

HOW TO TELL FRESH EGGS.

"Town and Country Lifo" answers this question, as'follows:—

.Bow'do the collecting depots assess tho value of tlio eggs brought to them? , By. their size, colour, and .freshness. Freshness is. discovered by. "candling." ..J The process is. sp-called ' because in ,its".simplestj'brm'it),consists of ihokling up beforo the 'light',of • a ..candle, the -egg which is being tested. In practice,, it is. usually held up before a Jamp, tho funnel of which is enclosed; with tin. In'the side of tho tin ;th,ero,.'.has beenVcut an-.opening tho sizo of an egg.. Held at this opening the sizo ■of the air-space—usually, but not always, at , the-.:large ! end of the egg—is "readily seen. An, egg which a broody heri : had happened to sit oh—and niany farmers'-.eggs-'dci-get. .sat oil by.broody hens—-would, show,a darkening of. tho, yolk. ,X. few-, eggs - might bo. .rejected for blood;-spots.' i A convenient way ill:which tho housewife,-may "candlo" eggs )i's to ciit in a. picce 'of cardboard a -hole the size of an egg. Then', holding the cardboard, before, the lamp'in -her left, hand and, itlio^egg-hi her right, against .th.o .liole in the cardboard, she will 'see -at orice, oil .giving, the egg a'half-turn,, what sort of an article she has. 'An egg, when' no more than three days-old-and properly kept-, is transparent. . As it gets older tho yolk gets to one side— because: the egg is lying ,in one position— and,;Ej!owly darkens. In a new-laid egg the t air.-spa'co will riot- be jigger than a shirt button or a.. threepenny-piece./' (In,, an egg fresh' from the nest thero would bo no "airspace.at all.) A vreek-old egg possesses ordinarily a space about tho size of a halfpenny. When the air.-spaco is nearly the size of a penny the egg may. be .anything from a fortnight to a month .old.