Page 387 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

A Model Bacon Factory.

streaks. Bacon must be lean and mild. The heavily-salted, four
months old fat meat of forty years ago has been driven almost
entirely out of the market. The Httle nation of scientific and
democratic agricultural producers again has taken the chief lead, and
of late has reaped the advantage of a greatly increased international
demand, with much higher prices. While erecting the factories in
Denmark, of which some mention was made in a previous chapter,
the C.W.S. at Tralee has endeavoured to encourage the Irish
substitute for the declinmg American article. From Tralee the
cured bacon goes to the C.W.S. premises at Trafford Wharf,
Manchester, and at London, Bristol, Northampton, and Newcastle.
The C.W.S. Bacon Factory at Trafford Wliarf Avas opened in
June, 1906. It does nothing more than provide for the washing,
cutting, smoking, and rolling of bacon and the boihng of hams, but the
provision is so modern, clean, and efficient that the factory has been
inspected by parties of Danes and others as a model. The entire
C.W.S. estabHshment at Trafford Wharf—transport warehouse,
bacon factory, and (recently) repair and general engineering
works—found a place there as the result of a purchase announced
in June, 1903. The construction of the Ship Canal was stoutly
opposed by the late Sir Humphrey de Trafford, whose demesne near
the Manchester terminus had been undisturbed, it was said, since the
Conquest. After the opening, about 1896, the thousand acres and
more of Trafford Park came into the market. The city fathers were
moving slowly in the direction of pm"chase, when the once celebrated
E. T. Hooley stepped in, and a unique opportunity was lost to the
municipality. In 1903 the C.W.S. became possessed of Trafford
Wharf and a share of the Trafford Estate without risking any
interception of the kind. The delegates already had approved the
idea by sanctioning a purchase of land near the SaHord Docks, but the
Committee abandoned the SaKord ground and agreed to take the
Trafford land instead before making its intentions known. Some
13,500 square yards of freehold and 3,000 of leasehold, including
wharf and warehouse equipped with electric cranes, constituted the
whole, the price being £49,500. To this purchase—which preceded
the later buying of the Sun Mills—the delegates readily agreed.
Interested in the products of domestic animals, and desiring to
aid retail societies in the sometimes difficult business of their
butchery departments, the Wholesale Society has frequently
considered the question of cattle deahng. It was a matter of
debate in 1870 and later. An advance has come in 1913 with the
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