The Dollar Hen Part 19

November 26.0 November 45.

December 27.7 December 48.

The total values figured by multiplying these prices by the New York receipts, are as follows:

Amount actually received $23,832,000 Values at quotations for strictly fresh 44,730,000

No one would contend it is possible to bring the entire egg crop of the country up to the latter value, but the fact that there is a definite market for eggs of first cla.s.s quality at almost double the figures for which the egg crop as a whole is actually sold, is a point very significant to the ambitious producer of high grade eggs.

Requisites of the Production of High Grade Eggs.

(a) Hens that produce a goodly number of eggs, and at the same time an egg that is moderately large (average two ounces each). Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, Orpingtons, Leghorns, Minorcas are the varieties which will do this.

(b) Good housing, regular feeding and watering, and above all clean, dry nests.

(c) Daily gathering of eggs, when the temperature is above 80 degrees, gathering twice a day.

(d) The confining of all broody hens as soon as discovered.

(e) The rejection as doubtful of all eggs found in a nest which was not visited the previous day. (Such eggs should be used at home where each may be broken separately).

(f) The placing as soon as gathered of all summer eggs in the coolest spot available.

(g) The prevention at all times of moisture in any form coming in contact with the egg's sh.e.l.l.

(h) The selling of young c.o.c.kerels before they begin to annoy the hens. Also the selling or confining of old male birds from the time hatching is over until cool weather in fall.

(i) The using of cracked and dirty, as well as small eggs, at home.

Such eggs if consumed when fresh are perfectly wholesome, but when marketed are discriminated against and are likely to become an entire loss.

(j) Keeping eggs away from musty cellars or bad odors.

(k) Keeping the egg as cool and dry as possible while en route to market.

(l) The marketing of all eggs at least once per week and oftener, when facilities permit.

(m) The use of strong, clean cases or cartons and good fillers.

CHAPTER XII

HOW EGGS ARE MARKETED

The methods by which the larger number of American eggs pa.s.s from the producer to consumer is as follows:

The eggs are gathered by the farmer with varying regularity and are brought perhaps on the average of once a week, to the local village merchant.

This merchant receives weekly quotations from a number of surrounding egg dealers and at intervals of from two days to two weeks, ships to such a dealer, by local freight. The dealer buys the eggs case count, that is, he pays for them by the case regardless of quality. He then repacks the eggs in new cases and, with the exception of a period in the early spring, candles them.

This dealer, in turn, receives quotations from city egg houses and sells to them by wire. He usually ships in carload lots. The city receiver may also be a jobber who sells to grocers, or he may sell the car outright to a jobbing house. The jobber re-candles the eggs, sorting them into a number of grades, which are sold to various cla.s.ses of trade. The last link in the chain is the housewife, who by 'phone or personal call, asks for "a dozen nice fresh eggs."

This most frequently repeated story of the American egg applies particularly in the case of eggs produced west of the Mississippi and marketed in the very large cities of the East.

We will now discuss the various steps of the egg trade, pointing out the reason for the existence of the present methods and their influence upon quality and consequent value.

The Country Merchant.

The country merchant is the logical business link between the farmer and the outside world and usually continues to act as the farmers'

buyer and seller until the commodity dealt in becomes of such importance as to demand more specialized form of marketing. Eggs being a perishable crop continuously produced, must be marketed at frequent intervals, and the trips to the general store, necessary to supply the household needs, offers the only convenient opportunity for such marketing.

The merchant buys eggs because by doing so he can control his selling trade.

The farmer trades where he sells his eggs, because it is convenient to do both errands at one place, and also because he wishes to avoid affronting the merchant by breaking the established custom of trading out the amount.

For these reasons the merchant knows that to buy eggs means to sell goods, and he therefore bids for eggs. His compet.i.tors across the street, and in other towns, also bid for eggs. The effect to the merchant of lowering the price of his goods or raising the price of eggs is financially the same. In either case it is the matter of cutting the prices under the spur of compet.i.tion. Now, the articles on which the merchant make his chief profits from the farmers' trade are dry goods and notions. Such articles are not standardized, but vary in a manner quite impossible of estimation by the unsophisticated. On the other hand, eggs are quoted by the dozen, and all that run may read.

Suppose, for ill.u.s.tration, two merchants in the same town are each doing a business with a twenty per cent. profit, and are buying eggs at ten cents and selling for eleven, the cent advance being sufficient to pay for their labor, incidental loss, and a small profit. Now one merchant concludes to play for more trade. If he marks his goods down he would gain some trade, but many people would fear his goods were cheap. But if he puts up a placard, "Eleven Cents Paid For Eggs," the farmers will throng his store and never question the quality of his goods. This move having been successful, his rival across the street quietly stocks up with a cheaper line of dry goods, and some fine morning puts out a card, "Twelve Cents For Eggs." The farm wagons this week will be hitched on the other side of the street.

The rate of business at ten per cent, being insufficient to maintain two men in the town, a mutual understanding is gradually brought about by which the prices of goods sold are worked back to the basis of twenty per cent, gross profit, but the false price of eggs will serve to draw the trade from neighboring towns and is therefore maintained.

As a matter of fact the price paid to farmers for eggs by the general stores of the Mississippi Valley is frequently one to two cents above the price at which the storekeeper sells the product.

Allowing the cost of handling, we have a condition prevailing in which the merchant is handling eggs at from five to ten per cent.

loss, and it stands to reason that he is making up the loss by adding that per cent. to his profits on his goods. Some of the effects of this system are:

1--The inflated prices of merchandise is an injustice to the townspeople and to farmers not selling produce, in fact it amounts to a taxation of these people for the benefit of the egg producers.

2--The inflated prices of merchant's wares work to his disadvantage in compet.i.tion with mail order or out-of-town trade. 3--The farmer who exchanges eggs for dry goods is not being paid more for his eggs, save as the tax on the townspeople contributes a little to that end, but is in the main merely swapping more dollars. 4--The use of eggs as a drawing card for trade works in favor of inferior produce, and the loss to the farmer through the lowering of prices thus caused, is much greater than his gain through the forced contributions of his neighbors.

The Huckster.

The huckster or peddling wagon which gathers eggs and other produce directly from the farm, prevail east and south of a line drawn from Galveston to Chicago through Texarkana, Ark., Springfield, Mo., and St. Louis. North and west of this line the huckster is almost unknown.

The huckster wagons may be of the following types:

1--An extension of the local grocery store, trading merchandise for eggs. 2--An independent traveling peddler. 3--A cash dealer who buys his load, and hauls it to the nearest city where he peddles the produce from house to house or sells it to city grocers. 4--A representative of the local produce buyer. 5--A fifth style of egg wagon does not visit the farm at all, but is a system of rural freight service run by a produce buyer for the purpose of collecting the eggs from country stores.

As far as the quality of product and advantage to the farmer is concerned, the fourth style of huckster is preferable. This style exists chiefly in Indiana and Michigan, and the better settled regions of Kentucky and Tennessee. The writer found hucksters in southern Michigan working on a profit of one-half a cent per dozen, while in the mountains of Tennessee he found a huckster paying ten cents for eggs that were worth eighteen cents in Chattanooga, and twenty-three cents in New York.

The huckster scheme of gathering eggs would seemingly be a means of obtaining good eggs because of the advantage of regularity of collection, but in reality it does not always work out that way.

While it must be admitted that in the isolated regions of the Middle and Southern States the presence of the huckster is the only factor that makes egg selling possible, it is also true that the peddling huckster of those regions usually disregards the first principles of handling perishable products. He makes a week's trip in sun and rain with his load of produce, with the result that the quality of his summer eggs is about as low as can be found.

In the more densely populated region with a twice or thrice a week, or even daily service, the huckster egg becomes the finest farm grown egg in the market.

The second step in the usual scheme of egg marketing is the sale of eggs collected by the small storekeeper to the produce man or shipper.