EGG INDUSTRY. From an economic point of view eggs constitute one of the most important commodities in commerce, and the egg industry, both in the production and dis tribution, is of notable proportions. Although eggs are used to some extent in the arts, it is as an esteemed food product that they maintain their importance.
In the United States the egg industry is continually growing. Formerly this country re lied largely upon importation for its supply of eggs, but now it exports fir more of them than it obtains from foreign ports. The increasing use of incubators has led to a large increase in the number of eggs laid by native fowls, which need "no longer waste their time in hatching them, but may devote it to the more profitable labor of producing them.° It is said by experts in this branch of American industry that al though the number of fowls kept in this country is now relatively smaller than formerly, yet by the adoption of labor- and time-saving machines there has been a constantly increasing output of eggs.
The production of poultry and eggs is one of the most profitable industries. A statistician.of authority estimates that a hen may realize 400 per cent of profit for her owner. In 33 States and Territories the value of eggs exceeds the value of the poultry product. The egg product in the United States amounts to more, when measured by dollars and cents, than the com bined gold and silver production.
According to the figures of the 1910 census, taken for the year 1909 (the latest so far com piled for this industry), the total production of eggs for that year as reported from 4,883,507 farms (out of the 6,361,502 farms at that time in the United States) amounted to 1,457,385,772 dozen, valued at $281,157,980. Of the entire pro duction only 926,465,787 dozen (63.6 per cent) were sold on the market, the remainder being consumed on the farms or used in hatching. Among the several States, Missouri held the.
lead in market production, selling a total of 71,886,145 dozen. Iowa was second, with a market production of 70,835,349 dozen. Then followed in the order of their contributions to the grand total: Ohio, 69,575,637 dozen; Il linois, 62,036,857 dozen; Indiana, 53,899,416 dozen; Kansas, 52,833,166 dozen; Pennsylvania, 52,446,077 dozen; New York, 48,074,481 dozen; Michigan, 38,568,386 dozen ; Minnesota, 34,347, 776 dozen; Wisconsin, 32,268,836 dozen. These 10 States produced nearly three-fifths of the entire output of the country.
The average value per dozen of the 1909 egg production was 19.3 cents. They were cheapest in Texas (15 cents) ; Oklahoma and Arkansas (16 cents) ; Louisiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota (17 cents) ; and dearest in Arizona, Nevada and Massachusetts (30 cents), and Rhode Island and Connecticut (29 cents). The average prices in 1917 ranged from 28% cents in March to 56 cents in December in the New York market, and from 2454 cents to 43 cents in the Saint Louis market. The average wholesale prices all over the country in 1917 varied from the low of 14 cents in Alabama, Arkansas and Texas, and of 28 cents in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey for April to the high of 30 cents in Alabama and 63 cents in Rhode Island for De cember.
By far the larger percentage of eggs used for food are those of the hen. There are, how ever, a considerable and constantly increasing proportion of duck eggs on the market and a few goose eggs. The average hens' eggs weigh 24 ounces to the dozen, and as food it is cus tomary to regard a dozen eggs as equivalent to a pound of lean beef. This is a very close approximation with the balance somewhat in favor of the eggs. A dozen duck eggs weigh 30 to 42 ounces, and a dozen goose eggs about 80 ounces. Pound for pound, eggs contain the same amount of fat as beef, and about half as much protein but being more digestible when properly cooked, their food value cannot be gauged exclusively by their chemical constitu tion. The yolk of the egg is the more nutritious portion, containing all the fat of the egg and the important phospho-proteid lecitho-vitellin. The white is chiefly albumen and water. In the general make-up of the egg the shell constitutes about one-tenth, the yolk about three-tenths and the white six-tenths. The yolk and white taken together, as ordinarily eaten, show a composi tion of proteids, 13.5 per cent; fat, 10.8 per cent ; water, 73.8 per cent, and mineral salts, 1.6 per cent. The eggs of ducks and geese have a higher fat content, reaching 14.5 per cent, with a correspondingly smaller percentage of water. When fresh, eggs have a specific gravity be tween 1.08 and 1.09, growing slightly less day by day when kept in the open air; so if an egg sinks in a salt solution of 1.07 specific gravity the egg is fresh.