"How did they measure hail before the golf ball was…

“How did they measure hail before the golf ball was invented?” asks an old joke, cited in print since at least 1970. Hail is often described to come down in golf balls, but before that that description, it used to come down in eggs.

Google Books
October 1970, Changing Times (The Kiplinger Magazine), pg. 2, col. 1:
How did they measure hail before the golf ball was invented?

19 June 1972, Omaha (NE) World-Herald, L. M. Boyd column, pg. 12, col. 1:
Q. “How, pray, did they measure hail before the golf ball was invented?”
A. In eggs. Robin, hen, duck, goose, turkey eggs.

Google Books
The Mammoth Book of One-Liners
By Geoff Tibballs
London: Constable & Robinson Ltd.
2012
Pg. ?:
If there were no golf balls, how would we measure hail?

Google Books
A Prairie Home Companion Pretty Good Joke Book
6th Edition
By Garrison Keillor
Prince Frederick, MD: ighBridge
2015
Pg. ?:
Before they invented golf balls, how did they measure hail?

Twitter
H. P. Oliver
‏@HP_Oliver
Thought for the day: Before they invented golf balls, how did they measure hail?
10:02 AM - 4 Aug 2015

Twitter
Will Lawson
‏@IsocWill
“Without golf… We’d never be able to measure hail.”
10:31 AM - 27 Oct 2015