A DISCOURSE ON EGGS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1771, 20 February 1888, Page 3

A DISCOURSE ON EGGS

The discourse on eggs which Mr Sim* monda has juat delivered before the Society of Arta Is well worthy of the most careful consideration Egga, according to the lecturer, constitute a negleoted tnlne of wealth. They are the one article of agricultural produce for which the demand is unlimited, and perhaps the only one m which we might, did we ohooae, defy foreign competition. They not only mean money, bat they command prices that admit of profit compared with Which beef and mutton are of little tcoount, and wheat barely worth mentioning. Hens, for those who know how to ntilfee them, lay egga which, if not made of gold, are quite capable of being tamed Into that metal, when they are retailable all the year ronnd, one month with another, at something not muoh short of » penny apiece, while the eggs of ducks will bring a etill more remunerative price. Eggß are a meat m themselves. Every element necessary to the support of man fa contained within the limits of an egg■hell, In the best proportions, and m the most palatable form. Pltln boiled, they are wholesome. The masters of JTrenoh cookery, however, affirm that it fa •aay to dress them m more than Jive hvm£re£l different wayr, each iaethod not only economical, bnt ealutary m the highest degree. No honest appetite ever yet re* jected an egg m some guise j it ia nutriment In the moat portable form, and m the most concentrated shape. Whole nations of mankind rarely toaoh any other animal food. They strengthen the con •nmptive, invigorate the feeble, and fender the most auaceptible all bnt proof against jaundice m its moat malignant phase They can also be drank In the ■hape of that " egg flip" which sustains tha oratorical efforts of a modern States- i man ; and the merits of egga do not end even here. In the face of these facts, it teems almost incredible that an article of commerce, to pioduce which requires hardly auy capital, and which le saleable m any quantity, ia so little attended to tbat tbe supply Is Id England altogether unequal to the demand. The fact Is that DO enterprise Is displayed m obtaining the beat layers, for the greatest possible difference exists In the s?za and quality of British eggs. A fowl whioh lays two hundred and twenty per annum 1b exceptional. But even In lovernefls-shlre one hundred and thirty five to on« hand.red and fifty •£-.-, annnra are a common return for a single hen. A cpore of Irish eggs we'gh 130.de? tgo podiide, while the enue nuto'Wr of good Dorkings fljale si* ounces more.