QUALITY IN EGGS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 335, 23 October 1908, Page 5

QUALITY IN EGGS.

WHAT IT IS, AND HOW TO GET IT. Eggs are more than mere shell and white and°yolk. . They possess quality, good or bad. Most people know the quality of a thoroughly bad egg, but fewer know the quality of a really good egg. "R.E.5.," in "Feathered World," has been telling something about it. Feed for Quality. The producer (he says) is perhaps too prone to look upon an egg as an egs, and to overlook the faet that thero can .bo and is a. vast difference in the qualities of eggs. To produce a good egg, good in size and in flavour, a hen requires to be healthy and have firm flesh and a smooth skin. Well-fed hens lay richer eggs than stock which is anaemic or out of condition._ Feeding can to some extent improve the size, as it most undoubtedly improves the flavour and sub-! stance of the egg. Want of variety in the food, want of fat, want of greenstuff, and too sloppy food, all contribute to ■ produce thin, pale, watery eggs. In the matter of, fat, however, caro has to bo exercised, as too much is as great, if not a greater fault, than too little. The eggs from hens which have free rango are better in flavour than those from stock which is "stall-fed." This explains why winter eggs aro always so. much poorer than summer ones. A food which has'been specially prepared and "balanced" —to use a technical term —is better than the haphazard method of feeding so commonly in use upon the majority of farms. Good 'food and pure . water are essential to. the production of good eggs. Brown anil Largo. • Consumers' - aro ■ critical about the appearance of oggs, and shells of a, ,brown, colour are preferred. Eggs must be clean without having been 'cleaned; and that they may arrive in the market so the startingpoint is to see that the hens have clean nests to lay.in. Eggs should be sent to market of one colour, and as nearly as possible of one size. To obtain one colour keep only those breeds which lay brown-shelled eggs,- or those which lay white. Orpingtons, Wyandottes, Langshans, Rocks all lay brown eggs, : while Leghorns, Minorcas, Andalusians and Scotch Greys lay white. It is possible; to obtain more limformity in size by breeding for it. Large eggs are always in demand, and some go.so far as to assert that eggs ought to bo sold by weight and not by number. New Laid. " The public demand new-laid eggs as far as it is possible to. obtain them, but after it,is twenty-four hours old an egg is never, strictly'speaking,' new laid, as .thore is a distinct change in flavour. Best quality esigs are only % to be got when thoy are obtained direct-from the producer, as after leaving his hands they never improve, but rather deteriorate., Preserved Eggs.' Eggs may be, prepared in quite a number 'of ways by using some material to exclude the air. These mostly .consist of immersing the egg in liquid, such, as water-glass or lime, or of encasing it in grease or salt. In preserving eggs it is well to bear one or two things in mind. Eggs which have been washed are, by reason of the removal of their natural coating, more apt to deteriorate. The shells are porous, and very quicldy absorb flavours. If left in a draught eggs seem to dry up. They keep better in the dark' than in the light.i They keep best of all in cold storage at a temperature of 33 decrees. Eggs' are constantly in demand, and most in demand when thoy are dearest, purchasers being usually ready to pay a good price for the proper article. •