To place eggs and poultry in the hands of consumers in strictly first-class condition, they must be handled with great care at every stage of preparation and distribution. Eggs must be gathered while perfectly fresh, kept in a cool place where no bad odors will reach them, and protected from heat and frost, as well as from breakage, when being moved from place to place. If the producer is careless about any of these points, many of his eggs will be tainted or stale or beginning to rot when they are only a few days old, and though he may call them fresh eggs and try to sell them as such, he will not get the highest price for them. The small collectors are also likely to be careless in handling eggs, and to ship them to receivers in bad condition. The receivers in the cities, whose whole business is in perishable products, cannot afford to handle goods in this slipshod way. They candle the eggs that are forwarded to them to determine the quality, and pay for eggs not only according to their external appearance, but also the appearance and condition of the package in which they are received. Candling eggs consists in passing them before a bright light, as in testing to determine the fertility of eggs that are being incubated. When the egg is held before a light, the expert candler can tell in an instant whether it is fresh and good and, if not, just what is wrong with it. Except when kept at almost freezing temperature, eggs that have begun to decompose continue to deteriorate quite rapidly. Sometimes a lot of eggs is candled several times and the bad ones removed, before it reaches the last dealer who handles it. Market poultry and pigeons are sold both alive and dead. Most dead poultry is dressed (that is, has the feathers removed), but pigeons and guineas are often marketed dead without plucking, and occasionally turkeys are treated in the same way. Live birds lose weight in transportation, especially when they are shipped in crowded and badly ventilated coops. Frequently many birds in a shipment die before their journey is over. Because of such losses, and because the price per pound of the best dressed poultry is usually much higher than the price per pound of the best live poultry, the impression that it is more profitable for a producer to dress his poultry is widespread. The result is that a great many people who have poultry to sell dress it just as they would to use at home and, putting it into a box or a barrel, ship it to a market where the prices are high, expecting to get the highest price for it. A large part of such poultry arrives on the market in such a condition that it is hard to sell at any price, and much of it has to be thrown away. [Illustration: Fig. 230. Barrel of dressed poultry opened on arrival at its destination.[27] (Photograph from Bureau of Chemistry, United States Department of Agriculture)] [27] Note the large piece of ice remaining. If the ice should give out on the way, the poultry would spoil.