SEALING UP AN EGG.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 21 September 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

SEALING UP AN EGG.

an important discovery.

THE FIRST USE TX ENGLAND

There livc3 in Bath a, wonderful old man of Huguenot descent, aged 92, who was the means of taking to England (ho knowledge of tho method for preserving eggs. He is Mr. Kinard Do la Bere, and though ho does not hear quito as well as he used to do ho still is keenly alivo to all that goes on in tho world around him, .13 ho was in his youth, when ho published a book of natural history with his own delightful illustrations of animal life.

As a young man Mr. Do la Bere visitcd America, where ho heard for tho first time of a wonderful discovery, mado by tho Technical Institute of Agriculture in that country, of silicate of soda for tho preservation of new-laid eggs, resulting in the preparation familiar to everybody under its name of water-glass. Ho realised what a tine thing for poultry farmers, and for agriculture as a whole, this discovery would be, and ho lost no time in introducing it to tho British Isles, where it, was enthusiastically welcomed. Silicate of soda attaches itself to tho shell of ail egg, and seals up tho porc3 so that eggs can bo kept quito well for a long period after they have been in water-glass for .a few weeks.

Orders began to pour in from all quarters, and in one year Mr. Do la Bero supplied as much as a thousand tons ot tho material. There camo a letter to him from as far away as tho Falkland Islands asking for a supply of tho preparation. " Tho writer had no money, nor any mean 3 of sending money," said tho old gentleman to one who called to seo him, u so he sent mo the only thing he could, a lot of tho Falkland Island early stamps, fur which ho hoped wo could send him a small quantity." There is not much, if anything, that tho most up-to-dafo poultry farmer could teach to this virile old man of 92. Ife has had many interests in his life, and his lovo for natural history has been a lasting one.