Preserving Eggs.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 197, 27 August 1901, Page 1

Preserving Eggs.

The abundance of eggs in the spring and

summer, and their scarcity in most poultry yards in the autumn and winter, have led to various experiments with a view to their preservation. Those who keep a large number of fowls will find it more profitable not to dispose of all their eggs at this time, when prices fall to the lowest, but to preserve some to be used.'as'cooking eggs at the endof the year. The system" of egg preservation has not been developed to the extent that its importance would warrant, and there is really no method that can be considered absolutely satisfactory. Whatever process is adopted, it is necessary that the eggs be quite new laid. And there is no doubt that the eggs keep better if they are laid by hens that have had no male bird running with them for at least three weeks. The eggs must not be taken for preserving from a nest that the hen has stolen ; for if a stale egg is placed with the others, the whole lot will in all probability go wrong. The methods that meet with most favour are preserving the eggs in lime and water, packing them in table salt, or in peat mould, or greasing them. In Germany the best results are said to be arrived at by using soluble glass, or coating the eggs with vaseline and putting them in lime water. The soluble glass process is sometimes adopted in this country. The mode of using

it is as follows :—To one part of the soluble glass add ten part 17 of water that has been boiled and allowed to cool ; then pour this over the eggs, which have previously been packed in layers in jars. The glass combines with the calcium carbonate of the egg shell and forms a cement that prevents the ingress of the air. Soluble glass is ordinarily used for protecting stone which does not stand the weather well. It can be procured from some builders. The old-fashioned method of storing the eggs in lime and ■ water is mostly followed in farms and country places generally. The eggs treated in this way have the shells somewhat brittle and the sarface rough, but otherwise they keep well. There are several recipes for using the lime water. One of the simplest is to add a pint of unslaked lime to a gallon of water. This is boiled, then well stirred, and, when cold, the clear water is poured into jars which have been filled with new laid eggs. Earthenware vessels are the best, but they must be glazed so as to prevent their absorbing the lime water. The jars should be covered over, and a little fresh lime water added from time to time to replace thatjwhich evaporates. To preserve eggs in salt jars should be used. A layer of salt is first put in (about two inchs deep), next a layer of eggs, the large end downwards, continuing with alternate layers of salt and eggs till the jar is

nearly full; then on the top place a thick layer of salt, cover with a stone lid, and keep in a dry, rnool spot. Greasing the eggs is a method a good deal adopted in Ireland, and also in France. This is performed by rubbing batter or oil between the hands, and smearing the eggs with grease. Only sufficient grease should be used to close the pores of the eggs, otherwise the eggs may become rancid. These eggs are better if stored in baskets in a dry place, but they must not be shut up in boxes, or in a damp situation, or they will be liable to turn mouldy. To preserve the eggs in peat, the peat is dried and ground fine. The eggs are placed in boxes, layer by layer, with alternate layers of peat, until the boxes are filled. Preserved eggs are occasionally mixed with other eggs, and soldas new laid, a practice unfortunately increasing in some districts.

There is no question that a nominated Upper House is a blot on our democratic form of Government, Bruco Herald. The necessity for prudence and economy is impressed upon us by one startling fact in the Financial Statement. During the year, the public debt of the colony has been increased by nearly two millions sterling that the Government confess to, and probably by a great deal more that they are not prepared to disclose. This makes no mention of the million that was authorised lasi year and has not been raised vet. Truly, this is the great Loan Land. Wo are not only mortgaging posterity with a vengeance, but we are mortgaging our present population at a rate far in excess of its increase, and aro also preparing heavy burdens for our own shoulders in the immediate future. And, even while the Colonial Treasurer talks about prudence and economy, his own Estimates show larger increases in the salaries of already liighly-paid civil servants.

The Budget indicates that another socialistic experiment is to be made by opening a State coal-mine. There is much to bo said both for and against this proposal. But if the experiment is to be confined to a single State coal-mine, which will give cheaper fuel and other advantages to one part of the colony, at the expense of the other parts, there will be great dissatisfaction. By all means, let us have half-a-dozen coal-mines. Cheap coal is a good thing. Hang the expense. But, in the name of all that is fair and honest.

if private coal mines are to be worked under the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, bring the State coal mines under that Act also. Don’t let us have cheap coal at the cost of State sweating.—Observer. No one will object to Mr Seddon’s desire for prudence and economy, says the Observer. This has also been the desire of the thoughtful section of the country for a good many years, but unfortunately the othor section was not ripe for either prudence or economy, and so the old order of things has gone on. Probably Mr Seddon would not have been ripe for it either for a few years longer if the London money market had not gone back upon him. He has been brought up standing by the difficulty of getting money in London. The loan of one million authorised last session has not been raised yet—though it has been borrowod against in small sums—and the intention to raise the present million in New Zealand shows that the time is not propitious for another visit to the London Loan Office.

The fact that there is a surplus in the Statement has made it acceptable to many people who were otherwise grumbling. It doesn’t matter a two-penny curse to them whether it is a paper surplus so long as King Bichard vouches for it and it appears in the Budget. But is it not a paradox that with all our vaunted surpluses we are incessantly borrowing? We don’t even attempt to live within our means. Here we go on from year to year, receiving the congratulations of the world on our prudent finance and our balances on the right side of the ledger, and then, with singular hypocrisy, thrust our tongue in our cheek and authorise the inevitable loan without which we cannot pay our way.—Observer.

It is very much to be regretted that Mr Graham’s motion for a _ return in connection with the Conciliatin', Boards was not carried. It would ] iave furnished a good deal of very valuable information in connection with the present crisis, and from the manner in which it was deliberately talked out one can only assume that there is a certain party in the House which does not desire too much light to be thrown on the working of the Boards. It is information which both the "House and the public have a right to demand. The Conciliation Boards are in a measure upon their trial. There is a growing impression in the public mind that either from the inefficiency of the men who have been appointed, or because there is really little or no room for conciliation on labor disputes, which are so sedulously fomented by interested persons, the Conciliation Boards have failed in the object for which they were designed.—Christchurch Press.