Page 386 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Story of the C.W.S.
then remained derelict until, in December, 1906, the Committee
reported it as sold for £550 to the Banbury Co-operative Society.
There are now dairy societies m existence in England
. . .
which are also tradmg societies and in membership with the C.W.S.
There is also an Enghsh Agricultural Organisation Society; and
ordinary retail co-operative societies collect produce from their
members and sell through the C.W.S. , notably the Wickham Market
Society in regard to eggs. And as a result of Congress discussions
and resolutions, conferences toward a mutual working have been
held between the Committee and business heads of the C.W.S.,
Mr. Nugent Harris, and other representatives of the English
agricultural co-operative movement; so far, however, with minor
effect.
An important C.W.S. butter-supplying centre needs to be
mentioned in the C.W.S. Brislington Butter Factory, just within
the eastern boundary of the city of Bristol. In September, 1903,
the purchase was announced of a plot of freehold land at Brislington,
three-quarters of an acre, for £750, on which to erect a butter-
blending factory. The business of such a factory, of course, is to
receive butters from many different sources, and blend them mainly
to produce tablets of various qualities, but each quality of a uniform
standard. Cream is packed also, and lactic cheese supplied.
Commencing under the management of IMr. 0. Thomas in 1904, the
factory was extended and the plant duphcated in 1911, while the
trade has grown from about £24,000 to nearly £200,000 annually.
In 1904 the Limerick Leader commented upon the Irish butter
pm-chases as equalling " actually one-half the value of the total
amount of butter produced in Ireland." The same newspaper further
noted the £120,000 spent during the previous year upon Irish eggs,
and the extension of the C.W.S. Bacon Factor}^ at Tralee. Here,
in the centre of the pig-raising district of Kerry, the bacon factory
began in September, 1901. The original depot at Tralee was built
in 1874, and there was a further purchase of property in 1896. Egg
packing is carried on in the depot, and the two-storey bacon factory
conveniently adjoins. Five hundred pigs weekly was the capacity
in 1901, and that number now has been doubled. Lard and sausage
meat are produced as well as bacon. Tom Hood, answering a call
to awake and glory in a sunrise, professed no care " for faint streaks
in the least—except in bacon ! " He would have been interested to
learn of newer generations finding his taste old-fashioned. It is not
that modem consumers prefer poetry, but that they choose thicker
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