This has already been suggested with chopped meat. The eggs can be baked with bread crumbs only, in a buttered baking dish with crumbs underneath and above. Sprinkle on some grated cheese before baking, or lay on thin slices of cheese, and you have a "hearty" breakfast dish.

Preserving eggs for winter use. When the hens are laying well, and eggs are cheap, it is a good plan to store away some for use later. Since the shells are porous, eggs take the taste of sawdust or of anything in which they are placed that has a taste or a smell. For this reason we must coat eggs to keep them.

Even in cold storage, eggs change flavor after a while; and, of course, we never sell preserved eggs as fresh eggs. The easiest way is to pack the eggs down in coarse salt, but water glass is the better preservative.

Buy the water glass at the druggist's. With it make a mixture with water, one tenth water glass to nine tenths water. Use large stone jars. Fill the jars with the eggs, selecting those without cracks; pour the solution over them; cover the jar, and set it away in a cool place. This costs only a fraction of a cent for each egg. The eggs when taken out must be thoroughly washed before cooking. The flavor is good, but it is dishonest to sell them as fresh-laid eggs.

Fig. 79. - Sallie and her White Wyandotte babies.

Exercises And Problems

1. What do you know to be good for your poultry at home?

2. Why is it necessary to coat or cover eggs in order to preserve them?

3. Compare the cost of eggs and meat in your town, and see which is more economical to use.

4. Do you know how to "candle" eggs, and what does the candling show?

5. Can you explain to any one who asks you the difference in digestibility between a raw egg and a hard-boiled egg?