AGRICULTURE: Cracked Eggs

Housewives could hardly believe their eyes. In three months the glut of eggs across the land had put prices on the skids. In Manhattan, for example, they had dropped as much as 31¢ a dozen, and by last week were down to 51¢, lowest price since 1942. And the Department of Agriculture had finally been forced to lower its high support price.

Because poultry raisers had increased their flocks, to cash in on support prices, and the warm winter had increased egg production unseasonally, Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Brannan said he had “no alternative.” By thus permitting prices to drop, he hoped to step up egg-eating. This week the department began to support eggs at a new level of 37¢ a dozen v. the 45¢ average last year. It looked as though even the Department of Agriculture was finally being forced to try a freer market to ease the enormous farm surpluses.