The Dollar Hen Part 20

The Produce Buyer.

Throughout the Mississippi Valley there are wholesale produce houses at all important railroad junctions. A typical house will s.h.i.+p the produce of one to three counties. These houses, once a week or oftener, send out postal card quotations. These quotations read so much per case, and are usually case count, with a reservation, however, of the privilege to reject or charge loss on goods that are utterly bad. Each grocery receives quotations from one to a dozen such houses, and perhaps also from commission firms in the nearest city. The highest of these quotations gets the s.h.i.+pment.

The buyer repacks the eggs and usually candles them, the strictness of the grading depending upon the intended destination. The loss in candling is generally kept account of, but is seldom charged back to the s.h.i.+pper. The egg man wants volume of business, and if he antagonizes a s.h.i.+pper by charging up his loss, the usual result will be the loss of trade. So the buyer estimates his probable loss and lowers his price enough to cover it.

By loss off, or "rots out," is meant the subtraction of the bad eggs from the number to be paid for. Buying on a candled or graded basis, usually not only means rots cut, but that a variation of the price is made for two or more grades of merchantable eggs.

Much discussion prevails among the western egg buyers as to whether eggs should be bought loss off or case count. Loss off buying seems to be more desirable and just, but in practice is fraught with difficulties.

If the loss off buyer feels he is losing business, he may instruct his candler to grade more closely, which means he will pay less.

Whether done with honest or dishonest intention, the buyer thus sets the price to be paid after he has the goods in his own hands, and this is an obviously difficult commercial system.

Where the buyer in one case changes the grading basis to protect himself, there are probably ten cases where the eggs really deserve the loss charged; but the tenth chance gives the seller an opportunity to nurse his loss with the belief that he has been robbed by the buyer. Such an uncertain feeling is disagreeable, and the results are that where one or two competing egg dealers buys loss off, and the other case count, the case count man will get most of the business.

The case count method being the path of least resistance, the loss off system can only succeed where there is some factor that overcomes the disinclination of a s.h.i.+pper to let the other man set the price. This factor may be: 1st--An exceptional reputation of a particular firm for honesty and fair dealing. 2d--Exceptional opportunities for selling fancy goods, enabling the loss off buyer to pay much higher rates for good stuff. 3d--A condition that prevails in the South in the summer, where the losses are so heavy that the dealers will not take the risk involved in case count buying. 4th--Some sort of a monopoly.

A monopoly for enforcing the loss off system of buying has been brought about in some sections of the West by agreement among egg dealers. In such cases the usual experience has been that some one would get anxious for more business, and begin quoting case count, the result being that he would get the business of the disgruntled s.h.i.+ppers in his section. When one buyer begins quoting case count, the remainder rapidly follow suit and case count buying is quickly re-established.

The City Distribution of Eggs.

In name, city egg dealers are usually commission houses, but in practice the majority of large lots of eggs are now bought by telegraph and the prices definitely known before s.h.i.+pment.

In the larger cities eggs are dealt in by a produce board of trade.

Such exchanges frequently have rules of grading and an official inspector. This gives stability to egg dealing and largely solves the problem of uncertainty as to quality, so annoying to the country buyer. In the city even, where official grading is not resorted to, personal inspection of the lot by the buyer is practical, and one may know what he is getting.

In many cases, especially in smaller cities, the receiver is the jobber and sells to the grocers. In larger cities the receiver sells to a firm who makes a business of selling them to groceries, restaurants, etc.

The jobber grades the eggs as the trade demands. In a western city this may mean two grades--good and bad; in New York, it may mean seven or eight grades, and the finer of these ones being packed in sealed cartons, perhaps each egg stamped with the dealer's brand.

The city retailer of eggs include grocers, dairies, butcher shops, soda fountains, hotels, restaurants and bakeries. The soda fountain trade and the first-cla.s.s hotel are among the high bidder for strictly first-cla.s.s eggs. Many such inst.i.tutions in eastern cities are supplied directly from large poultry farms. The figures at which such eggs are purchased are frequently at a given premium above the market quotation, or a year round contract price for a given number of eggs per week. This premium over common farm eggs may range from one or two cents in western cities, to five to twenty cents in New York and Boston. An advance of ten cents over the quotation for extras or a year round contract price of thirty-five cents per dozen, might be considered typical of such arrangements in New York City.

Some of the larger chain grocers in New York City are in the market for strictly fresh eggs and have even installed buying departments in charge of expert egg men.

The great bulk of eggs move through the channels of the small restaurant, bakery and grocery. In the small cities of the Central West the grocer handles eggs at a margin of one to three cents. In the South and farther West the margin is two to seven cents, the retail price always being in the even nickel. In the large eastern city there exists the custom unknown in the West of having two or more grades of eggs for sale in the same store. All eggs offered for sale are claimed by the salesman to be "strictly fresh" or the "best," and yet these eggs may vary if it be April from fifteen cents to forty cents, or if in December from thirty cents to seventy-five cents per dozen. The New York grocers' profit is from two to five cents on cheap eggs, but runs higher on high grade eggs, frequently reach twenty cents a dozen and sometimes going as high as forty cents for very fancy stock.

City retailing is by far the most expensive item in the marketing of eggs. As an ill.u.s.tration of the profits of the various handlers of eggs might be as follows:

Paid the farmer in Iowa $.15 Profit of country store .00 Gross profit of s.h.i.+pper .00-3/4 Freight to New York .01-1/2 Gross profit of receiver .00-1/2 Gross profit of jobber .01-1/2 Loss from candling .01-1/2 Gross profit of retailer .04-1/2 ------- Cost to consumer $.25

The cheapest grade of eggs sold are taken by bakeries and for cooking purposes at restaurants. When cooked with other food an egg may have its flavor so covered up that a very repulsive specimen may be used. Measures have been frequently taken by city boards of health to stop the sale of spot rots and other low grade eggs. The great difficulty with such regulations is that they are difficult of enforcement because no line of demarcation can be drawn as in the case of adulterated or preserved products.

That embryo chicks and bacterially contaminated eggs are consumed by the million cannot be doubted, but the individual examination of each egg sold would be the only way in which the food inspectors can prevent their use. The egg from the well-kept flock whose subsequent handling has been conducted with intelligence and dispatch is the only egg whose "purity" is a.s.sured with or without law. The encouragement of such production and such handling is the proper sphere of governmental regulations in regard to this product.

Cold Storage of Eggs.

The supply of eggs ranges from month to month, the heavy season of production centering about April and the lightest run being in November. The cold storage men begin storing eggs in March or April and continue to store heavily until June, after which time the quality deteriorates and does not keep well in storage. This storage stock begins to move out in September and should be cleaned up by December. Great loss may result if storage eggs are held too long.

The effect of the storage business is to even up the prices for the year. The reduction of the exceedingly high winter prices is unfortunate for those who are skilled enough to produce many eggs at that season of the year, but on a whole the storage business adds to the wealth-producing powers of the hen, for it serves to increase the annual consumption of eggs and prevents eggs from becoming a drug on the market during the season of heavy production.

March and April eggs are, in spite of a long period of storage, the best quality of storage stock. This is accounted for by the fact that owing to cooler weather and rising price eggs leave the farm in the best condition at this season of the year.

Because eggs are spoiled by hard freezing, they must be kept at a higher temperature than meat and b.u.t.ter. Temperatures of from 29 degrees to 30 degrees F. are used in cold storage of eggs. At such temperatures the eggs, if kept in moist air, become moldy or musty.

To prevent this mustiness the air in a first cla.s.s storage room is kept moderately dry. This shrinks the eggs, though much more slowly than would occur without storage.

The growth of bacteria in cold storage is practically prevented, but if bacteria are in the eggs when stored they will lie dormant and begin activity when the eggs are warmed up.

Of the cold storage egg as a whole we can say it is a wholesome food product, though somewhat inferior in flavor and strength of white to a fresh egg. The cold storage egg can be very nearly duplicated in appearance and quality by allowing eggs to stand for a week or two in a dry room. Cold storage eggs, when in case lots, can be told by the candler because of the uniform shrinkage, the presence of mold on cracked eggs and perhaps the occasional presence of certain kinds of spot rots peculiar to storage stock, but the absolute detection of a single cold storage egg, so far as the writer knows, is impossible.

It may be further said that with the present prevailing custom of holding eggs without storage facilities for the fall rise of price, eggs placed in cold storage in April are frequently superior to the current fall and early winter receipts. Cold storage eggs are generally sold wholesale as cold storage goods, but are retailed as "eggs." The fall eggs offered to the consumer cover every imaginable variation in quality and the poorest ones sold may be a cold storage product, or they may not be.

The Bureau of Chemistry of the United States Department of Agriculture has recently announced the finding of certain crystals in the yolks of cold storage eggs that are not present in the fresh stock. This finding of a laboratory method of detecting cold storage stock was at first taken to be a great discovery. Further investigation, however, indicates that the crystal mentioned forms as the egg ages and that the rate of formation varies with the individual eggs and probably also with the temperature, so that while crystals may indicate an aged egg, the discovery only means that the microscopist in the laboratory can now do in a half hour what any egg candler in his booth can do in ten seconds.

At the present writing (February, 1909) there has been much talk of laws against the sale of cold storage eggs as fresh. The Federal Pure Food Commission, under the general law against misbranding, have made one such prosecution. Many States have agitated such laws but little or nothing has been done. I find that the idea of such a law is quite popular, especially with poultrymen. Contrary to popular opinion, the cold storage men and larger egg dealers are not opposed to the law. The people that are hit are the small dealers and especially the city grocers. These fellows buy the eggs at wholesale storage prices and sell them at retail prices for fresh, thus making excessive profits but cutting down the amount of the sales. This lessens the demand for storage stock and lowers the wholesale price. This is the reason the wholesaler and warehouse man are in favor of the law.

We may all grant that the opportunity given the small dealers to grab quick gains and in so doing hurt the trade ought to be abolished. But how are we to do it? "Have State and Federal branding of the cases as they go into or come out of storage," says one--an excellent plan, to be sure by which the grocers could buy one case of fresh, eggs and a back room full of storage goods and do Elijah's flour barrel trick to perfection.

Clearly government inspection and stamping of each egg is the only method that would be effective and the consideration of what this means turns the whole matter into a joke. The official inspection now maintained by the boards of trade of the larger cities may be extended and the producers, dealers and consuming public may be educated to appreciate quality in eggs, as they have been in dairy products. City and State laws may also be made which will taboo the sale of spot eggs or eggs that will float on water. Meanwhile, a great opportunity is open for the man who has high grade eggs for sale, whether he be producer or tradesman.

Many eggs that would not do for ordinary storage are preserved by direct freezing. These eggs are broken and carefully sorted and placed in large cans and then frozen. Such a product is disposed of to bakers, confectioners and others desiring eggs in large quant.i.ties. Another method of preserving eggs is by evaporation.

Evaporated or dried egg is, weight considered, about the most nouris.h.i.+ng food product known. The chief value of such an article lies in provisioning inaccessible regions. There is no reason, however, why this product should not become a common article of diet during the season of high prices of eggs. Dried eggs can be eaten as custards, omelets, or similar dishes.

Preserving Eggs Out of Cold Storage.

Occasional articles have been printed in agricultural papers calling attention to the fact that the cold storage men were reaping vast profits which rightfully belonged to the farmer. Such writers advise the farmer to send his own eggs to the storage house or to preserve them by other means.

As a matter of fact the business of storing eggs has not of late years been particularly profitable, there being severe losses during several seasons; Even were the profit of egg storing many times greater than they are the above advice would still be unwise, for the storing, removing and selling of a small quant.i.ty of eggs would eat up all possible profit.

The only reliable methods of preserving eggs outside of cold storage are as follows:

Liming: Make a saturated solution of lime, to which salt may be added, let it settle, dip off the clear liquid, put the eggs in while fresh, keep them submerged in the liquid and keep the liquid as cold as the available location will permit.

Water gla.s.s: This is exactly the same as liming except that the solution used is made by mixing ten per cent. of liquid water gla.s.s or sodium silicate with water.

Liming eggs was formerly more popular than it is to-day. There are still two large liming plants in this country and several in Canada.

In Europe both lime and water gla.s.s are used on a more extensive scale.

All limed or water gla.s.sed eggs can be told at a glance by an experienced candler. They pop open when boiled. When properly preserved they are as well or better flavored than storage stock, but the farmer or poultryman will make frequent mistakes and thus throw lots of positively bad eggs on the market. These eggs must be sold at a low price themselves, and by their presence cast suspicion on all eggs, thus tending to suppress the price paid to the producers. The farmers' efforts to preserve eggs has in this way acted as a boomerang, and have in the long run caused more loss than gain to the producers.

For the poultryman with his own special outlet for high grade goods, the use of pickling or cold storage is generally not to be considered for fear of hurting his trade. Any scheme that would help to overcome the difficulty of getting sufficient fresh eggs to supply such customers in the season of scarcity would be of great advantage. The proposition of pickling a limited number of eggs and selling them for "cooking" purposes, explaining just what they are, ought to offer something of a solution, although, to the writer's knowledge, it has not been done.

Improved Methods of Marketing Farm-Grown Eggs.

The loss to the farmers of this country from the careless handling of eggs is something enormous. No great or sudden change in this state of affairs can be brought about, but a few points on how this loss may be averted will not be out of order.