Of those general factors, weather is the most important. Storms, rain and cold in the egg producing region decrease the lay, lower supplies and raise the price. This is due both to the fact that laying is cut down and that the country roads become impassable and the farmers do not bring the eggs to town. As long as there are storage eggs in the warehouses weather conditions are not so effective, but when these are gone, which is usually about the first of the year, the egg market becomes highly sensitive to all weather changes. Suppose late in February storms and snows force up the price of eggs. This is followed by a warm spell which starts the March lay. The roads, meanwhile, are in a quagmire from melting snows. When they do dry up eggs come to town by the wagon loads. A drop of ten cents or more may occur on such occasions within a day or two's time. This is known as the spring drop and for one to get caught with eggs on hand means heavy losses.
When once eggs have suffered this drop to the spring level or the storage price for the season, the prices for April, May and June will remain fairly steady. About the last week in June the summer climb begins. This goes on very steadily with local variation of about the same as those of the spring months. The storage eggs begin to come out in August and at first sell about the same as fresh. As the season advances the fresh product continues to rise in price. The storage egg price will remain fairly uniform. By November the season of high prices is reached. If storage eggs are still plentiful and the weather is mild sudden variations in price may occur. These are caused by a fear that the storage eggs will not all be consumed before spring. If an oversupply of eggs have been stored a warm spell in winter will make a heavy drop in the market, but if storage eggs are scarce the sudden variations will be up-shots due to cold waves. From November until spring egg prices are a creature of the weather maps and sudden jumps from 5 to 10 cents may occur at any time.
The price curve of 1908, which is represented by the dotted line in plate IV will illustrate these general principles. In the lower portion of plate IV is given the curves for the New York receipts. The heavy line represents the smoothed or normal curve, deduced from eighteen years' statistics and calculated for the year 1908. The dotted line shows the actual receipts of 1908. A comparison week by week of the receipts and price will show the detailed workings of the law of supply and demand.
Aside from the weather there are other factors that perceptibly affect the receipts and price of eggs. A high price of meat will increase farm and village consumption of eggs and cut down the receipts that reach the city. Abundance of fruit in the city market will cut down the demand for eggs. A cold, wet spring will increase the mortality of chicks and cause a decreased egg yield the following season, due to a scarcity of pullets. Scarcity and high price of feed will cut down the egg yield. High price of hens is said by some to cut down the egg yield, but I think this is doubtful, as the impulse to sell off the hens is counteracted by the desire to "keep 'em and raise more."
The following are the quotations taken from the New York Price-Current for November 14, 1908:
State, Pennsylvania and nearby fresh eggs continue in very small supply and of more or less irregular quality, a good many being mixed with held eggs—sometimes with pickled stock. The few new laid lots received direct from henneries command extreme prices—sometimes working out in a small way above any figures that could fairly be quoted as a wholesale value. We quote: Selected white, fancy, 48@50c.; do., fair to choice, 35@46c.; do., lower grades, 26@32c.; brown and mixed, fancy, 38@40c.; do., fair to choice, 30@36c; do., lower grades, 25@28c.
| N.Y. Mercantile Exchange Official Quotations. | ||
| Fresh gathered, extras, per dozen | @37 | |
| Fresh gathered, firsts | 32 | @33 |
| Fresh gathered, seconds | 29 | @31 |
| Fresh gathered, thirds | 25 | @28 |
| Dirties, No. 1 | 21 | @22 |
| Dirties, No. 2 | 18 | @20 |
| Dirties, inferior | 12 | @17 |
| Checks, fresh gathered, fair to prime | 18 | @20 |
| Checks, inferior | 12 | @16 |
| Refrigerator, firsts, charges paid for season | 24 | @24-1/2 |
| Refrigerator, firsts, on dock | 23 | @23-1/2 |
| Refrigerator, seconds, charges paid for season | 22-1/2 | @23-1/2 |
| Refrigerator, seconds, on dock | 21-1/2 | @22-1/2 |
| Refrigerator, thirds | 20 | @21 |
| Limed, firsts | 22-1/2 | @23 |
| Limed, seconds | 21 | @22 |
The writer was in the New York market at the time and saw many cases of White Leghorn eggs sell wholesale at as high as 55 cents. These were commonly retailed at 5 cents each. There were a good many brands retailing at 65 cents and one of the largest high class groceries was selling for 70 cents. This is practically double the official quotations and three times that of cold storage stock.