Jam & Cheese

Jam. Crosse & Blackwell jams are famed in England, but known in the U.S. only to epicures. If the company had factories in the U. S. and Canada and if it employed skilled advertising agencies, it would sell untold numbers of jars & cans of jams and other preserves, just as the solidly established U. S. firms, like H. J. Heinz Co. and Libby, McNeill & Libby, do. Such expansion requires money, which might be raised by sale of Crosse & Blackwell stock. To do that, company directors last week asked their stockholders' permission. Some stockholders shouted "absolute robbery"; others "gross injustice." A majority, however, approved the plan. As soon as the company sells its stock it will build its U.S. factories.

Cheese. Said President James Lewis Kraft of the Kraft Cheese Co., cheerily, last week:

"We have now so standardized the cheese industry that we can go any place in the world where a milk supply is available, manufacture cheese, and sell it at a profit.

"With this standardization as a basis, we are now laying a foundation for a business of international proportions, which we do not expect to be stopped by barriers of trade, race or language. Already we have established profitable factories in Canada, England and Australia, in addition to our nationwide distribution of plants in this country. Other foreign factories will be built.

"The most important development in our business of recent years was the opening this fall of cheese factories in the South. We now have eight factories in operation there and have five more under construction. These factories will be scattered across the South from Bristol, Va., through Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, to Wichita Falls, Tex.

"The South is an ideal dairying area since green feed can be had during ten months of the year, and by proper rotation of crops, green feed may be had in the other two months also. This factor especially fits the cheese industry, since grass-milk cheese is considered best. . . . "Farmers generally are just beginning to appreciate the fact that the dairy business is the most stable business in which they can engage. Present outlook indicates that in 1928 the dairy business of this country will receive its greatest impetus. The national consumption of cheese is increasing at the annual rate of about one-half pound per capita. This makes it necessary to increase production of cheese at least 40,000,000 pounds annually. . . ."