E.S.C. quarterly

              Norfh Carolina Sfafe Library
The E. S. C Quarterly K
VOLUME 13, NO. 1-2 WINTER-SPRING, 1955
Poultry, Pork, Beef, Crab, Milk Products Processed In Large
Quantities In State; Other Seafood, Vegetables, Fruits Lag
A few of the important meat items processed in North Carolina: top-left, Bacon, Bologna, Hams;
top-right, Poultry; lotver left, Seafood (Clams) ; lower-right, Beef
iflfflftETC,®m FROM
s PUBLISHED BY ^^^'VERSITY LIBRARY
Employment Security Commission of North Carolina
RALEIGH, N. C.
5WERS/7-JS,
TAGEegV, : HE E. S. C.
Tiie^S. C. Quarterly
(Formerly The U.C.C. Quarterly)
Volume 13, Number 1-2 Winter-Spring, 1955
Issued at Raleigh, N. C. by the
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY COMMISSION OF
NORTH CAROLINA
Commissioners: Mrs. Quentin Gregory, Halifax; Dr. Harry D.
Wolf, Chapel Hill; R. Dave Hall, Belmont; W. Benton Pipkin,
Reidsville; Bruce E. Davis, Charlotte; Crayon C. Efird, Al-bemarle.
State Advisory Council: Public representatives: James A. Brid-ger,
Bladenboro, Chairman; Sherwood Roberson, Roberson-ville;
W. B. Horton, Yanceyville; Mrs. R. C. Lewellyn, Dob-son,
and Dr. J. W. Seabrook, Payetteville; Employer repre-sentatives:
A. L. Tait, Lincolnton, and W. A. Egerton, Enka;
Employee representatives: Melvin Ward, Spencer, AFL, and
H. D. Lisk, Charlotte, CIO.
HENRY E. KENDALL „ Chairman
R. FULLER MARTIN Director
Unemployment Insurance Division
JOSEPH W. BEACH Director
North Carolina State Employment Service Division
M. R. DUNNAGAN Editor
Public Information Officer
Sent free upon request to responsible individuals, agencies,
organizations and libraries. Address: E. S. C. Informational
Service, P. 0. Box 589. Raleigh. N. C.
CONTENTS ~P~a~a~e
N. C. Food Processing 2
North Carolina Food Processing Is Showing Steady Growth 3
By Robert G. Kellogg
Articles on Larger Food Processing Firms ; Some Omitted 4
Food Processing Important to State's Economy 4
By Hugh M. Raper
Quality Meats, Other Farm Products, Grown and Processed 5
By Dr. D. W. Colvard
State Is Proud of Many Medium and Small Food Processors 8
State Has Many Small. Some Large, Ice Producing Firms 9
Hall and Pipkin Reappointed, Davis Again Member, of ESC 9
Poultry Growing-Processing Becomes Large State Industry 10
Poultry Processors Associate to Promote Industry 10
Farmers Exchange, Holly Farms Poultry Co., Priebe & Sons, Priebe-
Pietrus Poultry Co.. Watson Seafood & Poultry Co., Breeden Poultry &
Egg Co., Chatham Foods, Carriker Poultry Co., White Oak Acres, Mor-gan
& Sons Poultry Co., Almond Bros. Poultry Co., Webster Poultry Co.,
Marshville Turkey Co., Monroe Turkey Processing Plant.
N. C. Pork and Beef Processing Experiences Heavy Growth 18
N. C. Meat Packers Association New and Active 18
White Packing Co., Swift & Co., Armour & Co., Frosty Morn Meats,
Jones Sausage Co., New Bern Provision Co., Curtis Packing Co., Carolina
Packers, R & S Packing Co.. Mountain Packing Corp., Hickory Packing
Co., Statesville Packing Co., Fritts Packing Co., Topping's Country
Sausage.
State Heavy Peanut Grower. But Too Light in Processing 29
Seafood Plentiful in State, But Processing Too Limited 30
Perry-Wynns Fish Co., Belch Fish Co., Engelhard Shrimp, Fish &
Oyster Co., J. E. Waff & Sons, Waff Bros. Fish Co., Edenton Bay Fish
Co., Blue Channel Corp., Belhaven Fish & Oyster Co., Willis Bros.,
Cape Fear Cold Storage Co.
Variety of Novel and Interesting Food Items Processed 35
Ready-to-Bake Foods, Dixie-Dame Co., T. W. Garner Food Co., Wellons
Candy Co., Schoenith, Inc., H. W. Lay & Co., H. P. Cannon & Son, Caro-lina
Pecan Co., North State Canning Co., Pritchard Canning Co., Ameri-can
Molasses Co., Charlotte Refining Co., Mother Murphy's Laboratories,
Corbett Packing Co., Moravian Cookies, Hushpuppy Mix, Dixie Dew Syrup
Co., Ready Maid Food Co., Eure Peanuts, Egg Breaking, Dehydrated
Apples, Peach Processing
Little Cain Raised; Molasses Making Limited to Home Use 43
N. C. Bakers Long on Cakes, Snacks: a Bit Short on Bread 46
Waldensian Bakeries, Bost Bakery, Columbia Baking Co., American Bak-eries
Co., Bell Bakeries, Carolina Foods, Kannapolis Bakery, Griffin Bak-ing
Co., Mello-Cream Doughnut Co., Griffin Pie Co., Broadway Sandwich
Co., Royal Cake Co., Made Rite Bakery, Colonial Baking Co., National
Biscuit Co., Burrell Bakery, Piedmont Pie Co., Lance, Inc., Taylor Bis-cuit
Co.
N. C. Mills Produce Two-Thirds of Flour, All Meal Consumed 48
State Approaching Self-Sufficiency in Dairy Production 57
Foundations and Associations Aid Dairy Industry 57
Coble Dairy Cooperative, Southern Dairies, Biltmore Dairy Farms, Pet
Dairy Products Co., Maola Milk & Ice Cream Co., Guilford Dairy Coop-erative,
White Ice Cream & Milk Co., The Borden Co., Durham Dairy
Products, Yadkin Valley Dairy Cooperative, Harvey B. Hunter Dairies
Pickle Making In State Is Large and Expanding Industry 65
Mount Olive Pickle Co., Chas. F. Gates & Sons, Lutz & Schramm
N. C. Largest Bottled Drink Consumer ; $47 Million Industry 68
N. C. Bottlers Association Active in Industry's Work 68
Articles on Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, 7-Up, Dr. Pepper, Nehi—Royal Crown
Cola, and Data on 150-Odd N. C. Bottlers.
Pepsi-Cola, as 'Brad's Drink' Stated in New Bern, 1896 69
Changes in N. C. Employment Security Law in 1955 73
By R. B. Billings
Highlights in Industry and Employment in Raleigh-Wake 74
By Robert G. Kellogg
Note—Articles not otherwise credited, written by M. R. Dunnagan, Editor.
INDEX for two years, 1953-54, Vols. 11 & 12, due in this issue, will appear
in next issue.
QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1955
N. C. FOOD PROCESSING
North Carolina has always engaged in some forms
of food processing, limited in the early days to home
operations and home needs. The bountiful supply
of foods which nature and man's ingenuity have pro-duced
have been dried, salted, smoked and preserved
and canned from the time of the early settlers. In
recent years people of this State have increased com-mercial
food processing for home and the markets.
This year probably more than 900 plants, large and
small, regular and seasonal, are engaged in process-ing
and packing foods for human consumption. They
employ close to 25,000 workers in these plants and
pay wages and salaries that reach probably close to
$65,000,000 a year. Their products this year will
have a sales value of around $600,000,000. Food
processing contributes 9.6% of North Carolina's to-tal
value of manufactured products.
Poultry processing doubtless has made more rapid
strides in recent years than other branches of food
processing, due in large part to increased poultry
raising. The Department of Agriculture, N. C. State
College, the processors and feed mills are contribut-ing
to this advancement. Growing progress has been
made in Wake, Wilkes, Buncombe, Durham, Burke,
Chatham, Union and other counties. Processing
plants are being established in these areas, which
formerly shipped most of their chickens and turkeys.
Finer breeds of cattle and hogs, with better grow-ing
practices, have resulted in higher qualities and
larger quantities of beef and pork. North Carolina
meats now are on a par with the best in the nation.
Seafood processing is continuing as a fairly large
State industry. Of all the splendid vegetables and
fruits, only cucumbers are approaching their vast
potentialities in processing. Can't live on pickles.
Food processing is one industry that lends itself
admirably to small beginnings and may be carried on
successfully in just about every county in the State.
Practically all of the larger firms of today, including
those in milling grains, processing dairy products,
baking, canning, preserving, bottling and otherwise
processing the State's supplies, began modestly.
Governor Hodges realizes fully the importance to
the State's economy of establishing many small in-dustries.
Most of these could well be in food proc-essing,
thus taking further advantage of the prox-imity
and of increasing the value of many products
growing in every area. Director Ben Douglas, of
Conservation and Development, is devoting his and
his Department's efforts toward developing small in-dustries
within the State, as well as attracting larger
industries. I
To encourage further new and small industries in
all sections, Governor Hodges has named Capus M.
Waynick, a versatile and well-equipped man, to pro^
mote smaller industries in all sections of the State,
The recent session of the General Assembly enacted
a law lending more assistance and encouragement tc
small local industries.
Food processing is one class of industry in whicl
definite and substantial progress has been made. I
is also a division of industry in which the surface ha;
little more than been scratched. Through its devel
opment can come wider employment, increasing pay
rolls, better utilization of the State's vast resource
and a happier, healthier and more prosperous com
monwealth.
vVinter-spring, 1955 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Page 3
North Carolina Food Processing is Showing Steady Growth
By Robert G. Kellogg, Research and Methods Specialist, Bureau of Research and Statistics, ESC
Feeding North Carolina's four million citizens re-quires
not only the cultivation of crops and the rais-ing
of livestock, but also the processing of hundreds
of varied raw products from the farm, abattoir,
greenhouse, and sea. The growth experienced by
the food processing industry is attributable, in addi-tion
to the organic necessity of feeding an expanding
populace, to multiple social and economic factors.
Shopping in the supermarket fulfills the house-wife's
desire for assorted foods and luxury items in
year-round supply—strawberries in December, or
turkey in July. The shelves of the market and bak-ery
offer leisure ; the time for which would otherwise
be spent in cooking. For the housewives who are
job-holders, efficiency is necessary in preparing
meals ; the food processor provides this. As society
becomes more urbanized, less space becomes avail-able
for home gardens and kitchen processing activi-ties
; consequently more dependance is placed on the
commercial processing industry.
To provide this processed food, insuring quicker,
healthier, and more enjoyable meals, the raw prod-ucts
must undergo extensive cleaning, preparation,
and packing. Meat has to be butchered, cured, smok-ed,
and seasoned ; poultry cleaned and dressed ; sea
food processed, frozen or iced ; milk pasteurized,
homogenized, or evaporated, and butter churned ; the
many types of fruits and vegetables are preserved,
dried, pickled, or converted to juices, or made into
jams and jellies; bread and pastry is baked; nuts
shelled and salted; extracts and syrups carbonated
and bottled. And after preparation, many different
methods of canning, freezing, packing, or bottling
must be employed.
Food processing in North Carolina shows a high
degree of diversification—the State having desirable
climatic features and extensive coastal outlets. There
lis a definite correlation between population and food
jrocessing, with the larger counties, in most cases,
laving a proportionately higher volume of food proc-essing
activity.
Meat products are processed throughout the State,
numerous counties having plants hiring eight or
more workers, and therefore qualifying for coverage
under the Employment Security Law. In some cases,
MONTHLY AVERAGE INSURED EMPLOYMENT IN FOOD AND KINDRED
PRODUCTS. BY YEARS
Year
Avg. No.
Workers Year
Avg. No.
Workers
1939 . 11,153
12,333
14,4.65
15,317
16,335
15,232
15,065
16,526
1947 17,060
1940 1948 18,034
1941 1949
1950
1951
17,971
1942 18,349
1943 19,441
1944 . 1952 20,454
1945 1953 21,205
1946 1954_. 21,627
smaller counties operate large processing plants
which handle meat, poultry, and sea food.
Milk, as well as other dairy products, is produced
and processed on a commercial basis in nearly all
areas. Several large creamery and dairy enterprises
operate one or more branch plants. The same is true
in canning and preserving fruits and vegetables.
Much of the produce raised in North Carolina is
shipped to other locations; therefore, even if a re-gion
grows large amounts of a particular fruit or
vegetable, the processing or packing is not necessar-ily
done in that area.
Milling operations are widely scattered ; nearly
all counties supporting an establishment. Baking
plants also show a wide distribution. Large candy
producers are concentrated generally in metropolitan
areas. The beverage industry is distributed accord-ing
to population as are the ice plants serving the
manufacturer and consumer.
These industries require thousands of workers;
workers who are able to feed others, and thereby
earn wages to feed themselves. As North Carolina
becomes more self-sustaining by expanding process-ing
facilities, thousands of other workers should be
afforded employment.
In North Carolina during an average quarter of
1954, a total of 589 covered food processing plants
(those plants employing eight or more workers)
were in operation. These firms collectively employ-ed
an average of 21,627 workers each month. Total
covered employment has nearly doubled since 1939
;
showing a gradual but consistent growth. This
growth up until recent years has resulted in the addi-tion
of approximately 1,000 workers to the industry
each year.
During the past four years, the meat processing
Food Processing—Covered Employment 1951-1954
Process
"1954
Number
Firms
Quarter
Average
Monthly
Workers
Total Yearly
Wages
(Dollars)
1953
Number
Firms
Quarter
Average
Monthly
Workers
Total Yearly
Wages
(Dollars)
1952
Number
Firms
Quarter
Average
Monthly
Workers
Total Yearly
Wages
(Dollars)
1951
Number
Firms
Quarter
Average
Monthly
Workers
Total Yearly
Waces
(Dollars)
4eat Products
)airy Products
'aiming & Preserving Fruits, Vegetables. Sea Foods_
Irain—Mill Products
Sakery Products
kmfectionery and Related Products
leverage Industries
lisc. Food Preparations and Kindred Products
98
37
26
79
94
6
140
109
3.499
2,009
1,040
2,181
6,742
239
3,988
1,929
$ 8,066.935
6,507,695
1,959,367
6,456,216
19,431,765
573,223
12,262,855
4,717,763
98
36
26
76
97
8
140
111
3,233
1 , 730
1.064
2,118
6,792
282
4.034
1,952
$ 7,446.396
5,247,810
1,970,334
6,233,922
19,370,055
618.984
12.226.515
4.745.068
92
36
27
76
94
8
138
110
2,883
1,581
963
2,248
6,535
278
3,846
2,120
$ 6.217,103
4,753,345
1.759,657
6,184,220
17,867,192
623,656
11.392,045
4,866,749
Totals_ 589 21,627 $50,975,819 592 21,205 S57.859.084 581 20,454 $53,663,967
76
37
25
71
94
8
135
113
560
2.304
1 , 564
1,096
2,096
6,162
293
3.715
2,211
$ 4,819,220
4,255,302
1,618,741
5,538,392
16.316.726
602,010
10.472,531
4,902,916
19,441 $48,525,838
' Estimated.
Page 4 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-spring, 195.
N. C. COUNTIES INSURING 450 OR MORE WORKERS. 953
County
Average
Monthly
Employment
Percent of
State Total
Food
Products
Total
Payroll
1953
Percent of
State Total
Food
Products
State Total- 21,205
3,538
1.811
1,491
1,304
ui
645
611
551
537
527
513
495
494
466
100.00
16.68
8.54
7.03
6.15
3.49
3.04
2.88
2.61
2.53
2.48
2.42
2.33
2.33
2.21
$57,859,084
10,015,198
5,258,597
4,600,792
3,412,127
2,035,820
1,667,210
1,730,981
1,541,850
1,455,061
1,510,296
1,520,548
1,296.614
1,314,352
1.338,708
100.0
Mecklenburg 17.31
Guilford
Fosrvth _ . _
Wake
9.09
7.94
5.90
3.52
Durham _ . . _.
Wayne -_ -- ..
Buncombe .
Craven. .
Cleveland - ._
Rowan . _. . -
Iredell
Cumberland..- _.
Nash . .
2.88
2.99
2.68
2.51
2.61
2.63
2.24
2.27
2.31
Total—14 Counties 13,724 64.72 38,698,154 66.88
All other Counties 7,481 35.28 19,160,930 33.12
industry has shown appreciable growth in both num-ber
of covered firms and average number of workers
employed each month. The dairy industry, although
showing little expansion firm-wise, has experienced
considerable proportionate growth in workers em-ployed.
Canning and preserving has undergone a
slight, but constant, decline in number of workers.
The baking trade has remained unchanged for the
past two years in number of employees ; however,
growth was shown during 1951 and 1952. Total
monthly employment and number of firms has de-creased
over the past four years in the confectionery
trades. Beverage firms have remained stable, while
miscellaneous food processing industry has shown a
slight decline in employment, due partially to the
classification of some firms under a specific process-ing
group. The bakeries provide jobs for the great-est
number of workers ; followed by the beverage and
meat processors.
Seasonality shows little influence on wages and
employment. Even though one particular industry
might not afford year-round employment, another
will probably offset this unemployment by offering
temporary work. Peak employment generally occurs
during June and July; however, during the winter
months, average employment shows a decrease of less
than 5 percent.
Total yearly wages paid by covered industries
shows an increase from $48.5 million in 1951, to an
estimated nearly $60 million in 1954. During 1954
wages increased over $2 million from 1953. This
increase is notable in that the national net wage in-come
from food products decreased 2 percent during
this same period. Average weekly earnings have in-creased
in all processing activities. Workers in meat
packing firms earn an average of $48.03 weekly ; this
is an increase from $43.57 in 1951. Dairies provide
an average earning of $67.48, weekly; an increase
from $56.68 in 1951. Canning and preserving shows
an increase from $30.77 in 1951, to $39.25 in 1954.
Milling and bakery workers earn slightly in excess of
$60.00 weekly, or $5 more than average weekly earn-ings
of such workers in 1951. Confectionery firms
provide average earnings of $49.96 ; beverage firms,
$64.06 ; and miscellaneous processors, $50.95 weekly.
It is apparent that excellent potential exists for
future expansion of food processing. With the
growth in population, more industry should, theo-
( Continued on page 7)
ARTICLES ON MOST OF LARGE FOOD
PROCESSING FIRMS; SOME OMITTEE
This issue of Food Processing contains articles on about 10
Pood Processing firms operating in the State and with probabl
40 branch or affiliated plants. These are in addition to data oi
more than 100 of the 160-odd bottlers of soft drinks.
An effort was made to get articles on as many of the large
firms as space and time permitted. A few firms that shouL
have been included have been left out. Most of the article
are about the larger firms usually in terms of numbers of eir
ployees. Some, however, are included because of their unusua
or interesting operations.
Some of the larger firms which should be included are orai
ted from this issue for various reasons. Practically all of thes
firms were contacted personally—a few by letter—and article
were prepared on most of them. Omission of these firms i
due to decision of officials of the firms involved. Some fo
various reasons declined the opportunity; others failed to r<
turn prepared articles with their approval in time to meet th
deadline. Among these firms are the following:
Neese Sausage Co., Inc., Greensboro
Long Meadow Farm Cooperative, Inc., Durham
Coastal Dairy Products, Inc., Wilson
Pine State Creamery Co., Raleigh
Bamby Bakers of Salisbury, Inc., and Burlington
The Asheville Baking Co., Inc., Asheville
Town House Doughnut Co., Inc., Asheville
Jones Bakeries, Inc., Winston-Salem
Krispy Kreme Doughnut Co., Wiustou-Salem
Lingle Bakery, Inc., Winston-Salem
Holsum Baking Co., Inc., Gastonia
Clegg's Bakery, Greensboro
Jones Brothers Bakery, Inc., Greensboro
Interstate Bakeries Corp. (Ambrosia Cake Bakery, Inc.), Greensboro
Ward Baking Co., High Point and Rocky Mount
Brown, Greer Co., High Point
Swinson Food Products, Charlotte
Jack's Cookie Co., Inc., Charlotte
Fox's Royal Bakery, Wilmington
Continental Baking Co. (Royal Baking Co.), Raleigh
Speas Company, (Vinegar), Charlotte
Roxboro Poultry Co., Roxboro
The Lundy Packing Co., Clinton
Cross Poultry Co., Raleigh
Frazier Extract Co., Winston-Salem
FOOD MANUFACTURING IMPORTANT
TO STATE'S ECONOMIC STRUCTUR
By Hugh M. Rapee, Director, ESC Bureau of Research
and Statistics
Food manufacturing as of now does not rank as one of Nort
Carolina's major industries but recent economic data four)
in the 1955 issue of the Blue Book of Southern Progress su;
gests that in terms of gains in output volume the industry :
significant in its growth possibilities.
Data published in this volume suggests that North Carolin
has some 900 active food manufacturing establishments whe
all firms are counted and in 1954 these establishments employe
more than 24,000 individuals. Workers and proprietors
these firms had a payroll and profit income of roughly $
000,000. The gross output of these firms in 1954 was valued ;
about $590,000,000. The fact that the value of the food man
factures output makes up 9.6 percent of the State's total man
factures output suggests that dollarwise, even though not s
much employmentwise, the industry plays a vital part in tl
State's economic structure.
The 1955 edition of the Blue Book carries data for sever;
past years. The value of the output in food manufactures w;|
$69 million in 1939; in 1954, the value was $590 million. Th
indicates a growth rate dollarwise of 8.5 times in the fiftee
year period. For all manufactures the output value has rise
from $1.47 billion in 1939 to $6.12 billion by 1954. This growl
rate is roughly 4.1 times in the fifteen year period. Of cours
a part of this gain in output value arises from price facto]
but it is evident that this factor would influence food outpi
but little differently than any other type of manufactures on
put.
In 1954 six other Southern states had greater food manufa
ture output than North Carolina. These were as follow:
(Output in $ million) Texas, $1,914; Missouri, $1,716; Georgi
$851; Maryland, $844;
North Carolina, $590.
Kentucky, $829; and Louisana, 68
Winter-Spring, 1955 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 5
Quality Meats, Other Farm Products, Grown and Processed
By Dr. D. W. Colyard, Dean of Agriculture, N. C. State 'College
North Carolina's recent rapid advance in livestock
and poultry production is a well-known phenomenon
af Southern agriculture. Since 1948, the state has
moved from 30th place in total cash receipts derived
from livestock to 21st place. Perhaps not so well-known
is a parallel growth in processing facilities.
North Carolina slaughtering plants have improved
and doubled their facilities in the past five years, ac-cording
to some estimates.
There are now 40 plants that slaughter beef and
hogs regularly in North Carolina; there are five or
more that slaughter only hogs. In addition to these,
there are more than 100 freezer locker plants that
process meat. The best available measure of the
state's climb in the meat packing industry is a year-by-
year comparison of the number of animals slaugh-tered
commercially. As recently as 1949, North
Carolina packers slaughtered only 150,000 cattle and
salves. Last year they slaughtered 221,700. While
short-term factors play a part in cattle slaughter,
there are other indications that processing facilities
are in a long-range expansion program.
Equally significant to the volume processed is the
quality of animals slaughtered. Ten years ago, prac-tically
all local cattle were sold in the less desirable
grades and appeared in retail markets as hamburger
and other cheap meat products. It didn't pay North
Carolina farmers to grow out choice animals and it
didn't pay packers to handle the small and unreliable
supply. This is no longer the picture.
Tar Heel farmers now have premium-paying mar-kets
for grain-fed quality cattle. A study made last
year by Guy Cassell, extension marketing specialist,
shows that 31 of North Carolina's 40 beef cattle
slaughtering plants regularly buy good and choice
?rade steers. In many of our grocery stores, you can
Duy choice beef produced by North Carolina farmers
md processed by North Carolina packers.
Beef producers provide further evidence that the
state is beginning to compete for the quality meat
xade. The annual North Carolina Fall Feeder Calf
-«
Poultry dressing plant at N. C. State College
"Gloria Lady," Hampshire brood sow produced on model farm
of Curtis Packing Co., Salisbury, and some of her
record brood of 29 pigs.
Sales have shown a steady increase in the number of
animals sold in the top grades. In 1950, only 52.8
per cent graded fancy, choice or good. In 1953,
these grades claimed 74 per cent, last year 80 per
cent. The number of offerings have moved steadily
upward, from 1,232 in 1950 to 4,669 in 1954.
The changing complexion of the local market is
reflected also in the increasing number of commercial
breeders who use purebread stock in their herds. Of
51 buyers at a recent purebred bull sale in Raleigh,
it was reported that 48 were commercial breeders.
Most of these animals were sold into eastern North
Carolina herds ; as acreage restrictions tighten, more
eastern farmers are turning to livestock to maintain
their incomes.
While existing facilities are adequate to slaughter
the state's current commercial production of beef,
the fact remains that North Carolina farmers pro-duce
only one-third of the beef required to satisfy
our domestic appetite. As our farmers produce more
to meet this demand, our processing industry will
have an opportunity to expand.
Two trends that are favorable to food processors
are a net increase in population and a large migra-tion
from farm to city. Part of the meat production
now consumed on the farm will shift into processing
channels as migration from the farm grows.
Currently, the value of home-produced, home-con-sumed
meat is equivalent to an income of $471/) mil-lion
to North Carolina farmers. Freezer locker
plants, which have grown from none in 1938 to more
than 100 today, contribute to that income by furnish-ing
the farmer with cooling space for his home sup-ply.
The quality of North Carolina beef is equal by
grade to that produced in other areas. As consumers
become aware of this, our processing industry should
logically expect opportunities for expansion. The
state's meat packers recently organized to conduct
a consumer education program and to promote the
production of better quality meat.
In the absence of yearly records of out-of-state
shipments, there is no exact measure of North Caro-lina's
advance in the swine processing industry.
PAGE 6 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1955
ilr ' ^'^i?>.
, r >*
.;''
Group of Jersey cattle on winter pasture at farm
near Taylorsville.
There is no doubt, however, that we are processing
a much larger proportion of our total commercial
swine production than we were 10 years ago.
In 1954, the state's commercial hog slaughter was
675,000 head. As recently as 1949, it was only 361,-
000. There has been a trend away from farm slaugh-ter
to commercial slaughter. In 1949, our farm
slaughter was 700,000 head; by 1952, it had dropped
to 610,000 and commercial slaughter had jumped to
732,000.
A large number of swine are shipped out of North
Carolina for processing and a smaller number are
shipped in. The recently-inaugurated vesicular ex-anthema
disease inspection program provides the
most reliable data on imports and exports. Dr. H. J.
Rollins, state veterinarian, places out-of-state ship-ments
at about 500,000 head a year and imports at
45,000 to 60,000. Most of these swine are for proc-essing.
These estimates and records of the Federal-State
Crop Reporting Service indicate that North Carolina
packers process more than half of the state's com-mercial
swine production. Today we have two fed-erally
inspected plants in North Carolina that ship
all over the United States. There are other plants
that will qualify for inter-state shipments. Ten years
ago, probably 90 per cent of our commercial produc-tion
was slaughtered by out-of-state processors.
The clearly-shown shift in production from farm
slaughter to commercial slaughter is further evidence
in the case for an expanded swine processing indus-try
in North Carolina.
State College agricultural economists are now
studying the swine and beef processing facilities in
the opportunities for enlarging operations.
Sheep are becoming increasingly popular as a re-liable,
secondary, source of income in North Caro-lina.
They are produced for the lamb crop, which
is sold largely through pools for out-of-state process-ing;
the wool is a by-product that is valuable enough
to pay the feed bill.
Last year's Mountain and Washington wool pools
were bought by two North Carolina companies that
produce woolen goods. The state's wool crop is of a
quality used to make rough goods, such as automo-bile
upholstery.
About 90 per cent of the lamb crop, marketed
through 10 pools last year, was sold to one company
and went to markets in Philadelphia, New York and
Boston, where the demand is greatest. Consumer
education aimed at increasing our Southern appetite
for lamb could well foster an expansion in local
slaughter facilities. Currently, two-thirds of the
lamb in the United States is consumed by one-third
of the people—those living in northern, midwestern
and western coastal regions.
The state's sheep numbers remained at about 49,
000 over a period of several years until 1949. Since
then, they have increased at the rate of about 1,000 a
year. In 1955, there were 53,000 on North Carolina
farms.
The growth of the poultry industry in North Caro
lina, as cited in a recent study by Dr. R. S. Dearstyne
and Dr. J. W. Kelly of the State College poultry
science department, has backed a vast commercial
processing industry.
In 1935, the commercial hatcheries of the state
produced almost six million baby chicks; in 1953.
they hatched 70 million. In the past 15 years, the
number of turkeys raised in the state has climbed
from 239,000 to more than a million.
Such a background suggests a comparable increase
in processing facilities. According to Dr. Dearstyne
and Dr. Kelly, the poultry processing industry com
prises 186 chicken dressing plants, 100 egg receiving
and processing plants, six plants for freezing chick-ens
and turkeys, three plants for oil-treating eggs
one plant for processing turkeys, and several whicr
process both chickens and turkeys. In 1953, Nortr
Carolina plants processed $67,352,000 worth of poul-try
meat.
"Without these processors, the poultry industry;
the hatchery industry and to a certain extent the feec
fmmJwmm
Hams in storage at N. C. State College
Winter-Spring, 1955 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 7
giJhPi'KpBS*
Display of home cured hams and shoulders. N. C. State College
manufacturing industry would stagnate," the au-thors
of the study write.
A major problem of the poultry processing indus-try
is offered by the receipt of many lots of irregular,
poorly finished, poorly-feathered birds, Dr. Dear-styne
and Dr. Kelly found in their study. In their
words, ''processing as such cannot put quality into an
inferior product. This necessarily must be done by
the grower."
In the absence of a price differential for quality,
it is doubtful that this problem will be easily solved.
North Carolinians buy about $50 million worth of
eggs a year; in 1952 half of the market eggs were
shipped into the state. Such an imbalance in produc-tion
and consumption clearly indicates the expansion
possible in egg production, processing and market-ing.
Dr. Kelly and Dr. Dearstyne say our failure to cap-ture
a larger share of our domestic market has been
due to : small market egg producing units which have
been unable to take over any single market that re-quires
volume ; a lack of volume production 52 weeks
of the year ; and the absence of an enforced market
egg law. "This," they write, "reduced the incentive
to produce, grade and package quality eggs, since
such eggs often had to compete with misbranded,
poor quality eggs on a price basis."
These problems have been met in part by: small
producers marketing as groups; research that has
shown ways to obtain year-round production; and
market egg legislation passed by the recent General
Assembly.
State College agricultural economists and horticul-turists
are engaged in a study to determine the status
and future of North Carolina processing plants for
vegetables and fruits. At present, North Carolina
Droduces only three major crops for processing : snap
beans, cucumbers for pickles, and cabbage. While
not grown primarily for processing, probably 50,000
.0 75,000 cases of North Carolina sweet potatoes
were canned last year, largely by out-of-state pack-rs.
Only one North Carolina plant—at New Bern
—processes sweet potatoes.
In 1954, there were 3,000 acres of snap beans
?rown for processing; practically all of this produc-
;ion was canned outside the state. In 1953 and 1954,
;here were 16,000 acres of cucumbers grown for proc-essing
into pickles in North Carolina, and the largest
part of the crop was handled by North Carolina com-panies.
Cucumber-pickle acreage is twice the 1943-
52 average.
North Carolina is not a sauerkraut-consuming
state, and there are only two companies processing
cabbage here. More study is needed to determine
whether or not there is an opportunity for further
processing of cabbage in North Carolina.
According to Dr. J. H. Dietz and Dr. Ivan Jones of
the Horticultural Department, growers in North
Carolina must be willing to provide an adequate sup-ply
of fruits and vegetables to induce processors to
locate here. Undoubtedly, the fact that fresh market
varieties command a better price than processing
varieties curtails the volume available for canning.
In 1954, the processing market paid an average of
$103 per acre for the three crops it bought, while the
fresh market paid an average of $172 an acre for
eight crops. However, the processing market is a
more stable one than the fresh market.
Dr. Dietz and Dr. Jones believe there would be
room for an expansion of bean processing in the state
if there were other supporting crops. A plant can't
operate on beans alone.
A study made by Dr. Dietz shows that North Caro-lina
has 15 plants that can fruits and vegetables
;
three that can preserves, jams and jellies; one that
dehydrates fruits and vegetables; 10 that pickle
fruits and vegetables ; and seven that freeze fruits,
vegetables and seafoods. There are approximately
24 others that buy farm products used in making
beer, peanutbutter and other peanut edibles, flavor-ings,
potato chips, cheese, vinegar and cider, textile
supplies and corn products, shortening and oils.
To serve processors and prospective processors, the
Horticulture Department operates a modern food and
vegetable processing laboratory; it has active proj-ects
in pickling, canning and freezing. While the
state's commercial vegetable and fruit production
is now largely channelled into fresh markets, acreage
restrictions and other factors may increase our ac-tivity
in the processing market, bringing with it a
demand for more processing facilities.
It is unlikely that North Carolina would or should
attempt to produce and process for all of its domes-tic
needs, but it can compete for local and national
markets to a greater extent than in the past. North
Carolina enjoy many natural advantages in the pro-duction
and marketing of livestock, fruits and veg-etables.
A processing industry expanded on a sound
basis is essential to the fulfillment of the economic
promise our favorable competitive position offers.
N. C. FOOD PROCESSING SHOWING GROWTH
(Continued from page 4)
retically, be required ; however, this probably will not
be true if a high percentage of raw products con-tinues
to be exported to other states. Should this
expansion materialize, much of the necessity for
buying millions of dollars worth of food processed
elsewhere will be alleviated. This industry, through
expansion, can provide more food for North Carolina,
and more jobs for her citizens.
PAGE 8 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1955
State is Proud of Many Medium and Small Food Processors
North Carolina has several hundred medium and
small sized Food Processing plants. Some of these
are large enough for special consideration but for
various reasons could not be represented in this is-sue
by special articles. This is regretted.
The aggregate processing by these several hun-dred
plants reaches a formidable figure in produc-tion,
sales, employment and payroll. Many of them
are in rural areas where job opportunities are most
urgently needed. Practically every Food Processing
plant in North Carolina, regardless of size now,
started small. It is certain that many of these med-ium
and small sized plants now will grow, expand
and prosper. Governor Hodges and Capus M. Way-nick
are interested and active in promoting small,
local industries, and Food Processing is particularly
suited to this type of industry.
Some of these medium and smaller sized Food
Processing firms, by no means complete and proba-bly
not entirely accurate, are listed as follows
:
Poultry, Pork and Beef Products
B & B Poultry Market, Burlington
Hornadays Abattoir, Snow Camp
Washington Packing Co., Washington
Clyde E. Moore and Co., Windsor
Asheville Packing Co., Asheville
Sunnyview Poultry Farm, Candler
Black Mountain Freezer Locker Co., Black Mountain
Cookes Packing Plant, Concord
Huffman Sausage Co., Hickory
Pittsboro Poultry Co., Inc., Pittsboro
K & W Packing Co., Inc., Shelby
B. P. Jenkins & Son, Shelby
Chadbourn Packing Co., Chadbourn
Thompson's Abattoir, Whiteville
Underwood Poultry, Fayetteville
McNeill Poultry Co., Fayetteville
Colonial Frozen Foods, Scotland Neck
Cole's Sausage, Durham
Z. B. Bullock & Son, Rocky Mount
Twin City Packing Co., Inc., Winston-Salem
Winston Poultry Co., Inc., Winston-Salem
Forsyth Poultry Co., Winston-Salem
Arden Farms Packing Co., Clemmons
Stewart & Long, Gastonia
Modern Poultry, High Point
Stevens Bros. Poultry, Inc., Greensboro
Vincent Meat Co., Roanoke Rapids
Bunch Hatchery, Statesville
Walter Bradley Packing Co., Dillsboro
Patterson's Packing Co., Sanford
A. M. Cooke, Sanford
Franklin Frozen Foods, Inc., Franklin
Williamston Packing Co., Williamston
Hanline Poultry Co., Charlotte
Dilworth Poultry Co., Charlotte
Charlotte Poultry Co., Inc., Charlotte
Thompson Poultry Co., Charlotte
Routh's Poultry Co., Robbins
Purvis Poultry Co., Inc., Parkwood
Aberdeen Packing Co., Aberdeen
Carolina Poultry Plant, Pinehurst
Scruggs Poultry Farm, Rocky Mount
Wanets Sausage Co., Wilmington
Wilmington Packing Co., Wilmington
Piedmont Packing Co., Inc., Hillsboro
R. L. Parker Packing Co., Elizabeth City
Rooks Meat Products, Rocky Mount
Greenville Packing Co., Greenville
Clark's Abattoir, Rocky Mount
Millikans Country Sausage, Asheboro
T. L. York, Staley
Randolph Abattoir, Randleman
Sandy Springs Poultry Farm, Hamlet
White Poultry Co., Rockingham
Lumberton Poultry Processing Plant, Lumberton
Goodyear Sausage Plant, Lumberton
Groff Brothers Poultry Co., Reidsville
White Hill Dressing Plant, Kannapolis
Forest City Sausage Co., Forest City
Luter Packing Co., Inc., Laurinburg
Stanly Frozen Food Locker Plant, Albemarle
Yadkin Valley Packers, Inc., Jonesville
Monroe Poultry Co.. Monroe
Austin Farms, Wendell
Edwards Poultry Knoll, Raleigh
Elliott Packing Co., Inc., Goldsboro
Parker Poultry Co., Inc., Goldsboro
Dairy Products
Sherrill Ice Cream Co., Granite Falls
Shelby Creamery Co., Inc., Shelby
Mooresboro Creamery, Inc., Mooresboro
Blue Ridge Products Co., Inc., Rutherfordton
Hills Ice Cream Co., Whiteville
Royal Ice Cream Co., Durham
Peerless Ice Cream, Winston-Salem
Gastonia Ice Cream Co., Gastonia
Dick's Ice Cream Co., Inc., Greensboro
Carson Ice Cream Co., Hendersonville
Mooresville Ice Cream Co., Mooresville
Mooresville Cooperative Creamery, Mooresville
Harvey C. Hines Co., Kinston
Gardner's Dairy Products of Rocky Mount, Inc., Rocky Mount
Mello Ice Cream Co., Wilmington
Buttercup Ice Cream Co., Inc., Hamlet
Wilson Ice Cream Co., Lumberton
Philips Ice Cream Co.. Clinton
The Creamery, Wilson
Hillcrest Dairy, Inc., Mount Airy
Caimmg and Preserving Fruits, Vegetables and Seafoods
Anna Myers Pure Food, Inc., Windsor
T. B. Smith, Davis
T. A. Taylor Wholesale Seafood Co., Sea Level
Carteret Quick Freezing Co., Beaufort
The Orringer Pickle Co., New Bern
Wallace Pickle Co., Wallace
Granville Locker Plant, Inc., Oxford
Frosted Food & Locker Corp., Charlotte
Mountain View Canning Co., Inc., Seagrove
Wood Canning Co., Dobson
C. C. Lang & Son, Inc., Plymouth
Wayne Cold Storage Co., Inc., Goldsboro
Frozen Food Lockers, Inc., Wilson
Bakery Products
Bamby Bakers, Inc., Concord and Burlington
Belhaven Bakery, Bel haven
Moore's Bakery, Asheville
Carolina Cake Co., Inc., Concord
Dixie Cream Pastries, Lenoir
Davis Bakery, Hickory
The Mountaineer Bakery, Murphy
Ware & Sons, Kings Mountain
Joy Cream Doughnut Co., Shelby
Home Bakery, Fayetteville
United Baking Co., Inc., Lexington
The Cake Box, Inc., Rocky Mount
Crystal Baking Co., Inc., Winston-Salem
Doby's Bakery, Inc., Winston-Salem
Dewey's Bake Shop, Winston-Salem
Pat-a-Cake Bakery, Inc., Gastonia
Alex's Doughnut Co., Gastonia
Davis Baking Co., Durham
Quality Pastry Shop, Inc., High Point
The Sweet Shoppe, High Point
General Baking Co., Inc., Hendersonville
Mooresville Bakery, Mooresville
Dainty Maid Bakery, Reidsville
Queen Pie Co., Charlotte
Russell Biscuit Co., Charlotte
Charlotte Bread Co., Charlotte
Winter-Spring, 1955 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 9
Variety Bake Shop, Inc., Charlotte
Tasty Pastry Bakery, Wilmington
Dixieland Bakery, Wilmington
Peck's Bakery, Greensboro
Rockingham Baking Co., Rockingham
Lumberton Bakery Co., Lumberton
Daily Maid Bakery, Reidsville
Parrish Bakeries, Inc., Salisbury
Andrews Bakery, Salisbury
Sampson Bakery, Clinton
Albemarle Bakery, Inc., Albemarle
Monroe Bakery Co., Inc., Monroe
Fishers Bakery & Sandwich Co., Raleigh
Key City Baking Co., Inc., North Wilkesboro
Purity Bakery. Inc., Wilson
Confectionery & Related Products
Mitchum & Tucker Co., Charlotte
Allen Candy Co., Charlotte
J and J Candy Co., Inc., Charlotte
The Acme Candy Co., Wilson
Sandwich Manufacturers
Service Sandwich Shop, Asheville
Try One Sandwich Co., Hickory
Cleveland Sandwich Co., Boiling Springs
Quality Sandwich Co., Kings Mountain
Toast-Rite Sandwich Co., Durham
Durham Sandwich Co., Durham
Royal Sandwich Co., Durham
Made Rite Sandwich Co., Greensboro
Fay's Sandwich Co., Smithfield
Oboy Sandwich Co., Charlotte
Mallard Ice Cream & Sandwich Co., Wilmington
Darden's Sandwich Co., Goldsboro
Jims Sandwich Co., Wilson
Select Foods, Inc., Charlotte
Maryland Baking Co. of the Carolinas, Charlotte
Miscellaneous
J. H. Conger, Edenton
J. R. Thomas, Winston-Salem
Fleetwood Coffee Co., Greensboro
W. N. Johnston Sons Co., Mooresville
Wood Grocery Co., Selma
The Benson Oil Mill Co., Inc., Benson
Corbett Industries, Wilmington
Blue Ridge Products Co., Inc., Rutherfordton
Blue Magic Co. of North Carolina, Wilson
Note—Grain Mill list carried in earlier issue.
Note—Ice Manufacturers are listed below.
STATE HAS MANY SMALL AND SOME
LARGE ICE MANUFACTURING FIRMS
Ice manufacturing is classified for general purposes as food
processing, as is bottling—probably because no classification
is made for liquids or solid-liquids. Most of the State's ice
plants are relatively small, serving local or immediate vicinity
areas. Also, most of them have the inevitable counterpart
"coal."
Three firms, however, and probably others have larger opera-tions
with plants in more than one city. Some have the same
name for all plants while others are subsidiary or affiliated
firms operating under an earlier name. These three principal
firms are Atlantic Company, headquarters Charlotte (2 plants),
and other plants at Salisbury, Hickory, New Bern, Lexington,
Tarboro, Statesville, Spencer, Albemarle and Winston-Salem
(2 plants). Another is the Colonial Ice Co., headquarters
reensboro, with plants in Washington, Wilson, Fayetteville,
Durham, Rocky Mount, Gastonia, Roanoke Rapids, Kinston,
3reenville, Farmville and Goldsboro. The third is the Ameri-an
Service Co., headquarters Atlanta, with plants at Asheville,
Concord and Greensboro.
Other ice producing plants in the State follow:
Hightower Ice & Fuel Co., Wadesboro
Asheville Ice & Storage Co., Inc., Asheville
Beaufort Ice Co., Inc., Beaufort
Catawba Ice & Fuel Co., Newton
Hickory Ice & Coal Co., Hickory
Edenton Ice Co., Inc., Edenton
Fayetteville Ice & Fuel Co., Fayetteville
City Ice & Fuel Co., Thomasvilie
Murdoek Ice & Coal Co., Inc., Durham
Ice & Fuel Co., Inc., Durham
HALL AND PIPKIN REAPPOINTED, DAVIS
IS AGAIN MEMBER OF ES COMMISSION
R. Dave Hall, Belmont, serving since July 1, 1941,
and W. Benton Pipkin, Reidsville, serving since Nov.
16, 1951, were reappointed members of the Employ-ment
Security Commission and Bruce E. Davis,
Charlotte, former member, was appointed to succeed
the late Charles A. Fink, Spencer, who died a few
weeks before his term was to expire, July 1. An-nouncement
of the appointments was made by Gov-ernor
Hodges July 6. These terms are for four years.
Col. Henry E. Kendall, chairman, and Mrs. Quen-tin
Gregory, Halifax; Dr. Harry D. Wolf, Chapel
Hill, and Crayon C. Efird, Albemarle, still have two
years to serve on their present terms, which expire
July 1, 1957. Mr. Hall, Dr. Wolf and Mr. Fink had
served from July 1, 1941, when the present form of
the Commission became effective after the change
from the three-man, full-time membership to a full-time
chairman and six per diem members.
Mr. Davis, assistant State director of the CIO Or-ganizing
Committee, named by Governor Scott, serv-ed
a four-year term, starting in 1949 and ending in
1953. He was not reappointed then. Mr. Davis, 59,
is a native of Whiteville, farm born, did automobile
work in Toledo, Ohio, until he entered service in
World War I. He was in ship construction and sales
work in Baltimore, was sales manager for a firm and
became interested in union labor organization while
living in Harlan, Ky.
Before World War II he returned to North Caro-lina,
helped with construction work at Fort Bragg
and Camp Davis, then worked at the shipyard at
Wilmington. There he was active in organizing an
Industrial Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of
America unit, CIO, of which he is still a member.
He was on the local appeals panel of the War Man-power
Commission and served on the Local Advis-ory
Council of WMC. He was also on the State Vet-erans
Committee. In 1946 Mr. Davis joined the CIO
Organizing Committee in Charlotte and later was
named assistant State director.
City Ice Co.. Inc., Kooky Mount
Adams Ice & Coal Co., Inc., Gastonia
Mount Hollv Ice & Fuel Co., Mount Holly
Montbell Ice & Fuel Co., Belmont
Gates County Ice & Fuel Co., Inc.. Gatesville
Granville Ice & Fuel Co., Inc., Oxford
High Point Ice & Coal Co., High Point
Greensboro Ice & Coal Co.. Greensboro
Hunter Coal & Ice Co., Inc., High Point
Thompson Coal Co., Koanoke Rapids
Dunn Ice & Fuel Co., Inc., Dunn
Canton Laundry Coal & Ice Co., Canton
City Ice & Storage Co., Hendersonville
Ahoskie Ice & Coal Co., Ahoskie
Fields Fish, Oyster & Ice Co., Sanford
Sanford Ice & Coal Co., Inc., Sanford
Lineberger Ice & Fuel Co.. Lincolnton
Lindslev Ice Co., Williamston
Electric Ice & Fuel Co., Charlotte
Westside Ice & Fuel Co., Charlotte
Parker Ice & Fuel Co., Aberdeen
Boyle Ice Co. of Delaware, Wilmington
Rose Ice & Coal Co., Wilmington
Rich Square Coal & Ice Co., Inc., Rich Square
Jacksonville Ice Co., Jacksonville
Diamond Ice Co., Inc., Bayboro
Crystal Ice & Coal Corp., Elizabeth City
Rockingham Ice Co., Inc., Rockingham
Lumberton Ice & Fuel Co.. Lumberton
Merchants Ice & Coal Co., Leaksville
Reidsville Ice & Coal Co., Reidsville
Kannapolis Ice & Fuel Co., Kannapolis
Clinton Ice Mfg. Co., Inc., Clinton
Harris Ice <& Fuel Co., Laurinburg
Union Ice & Coal Co., Monroe
Henderson Ice Co., Henderson
Capital Ice & Coal Co., Inc., Raleigh
Hamlet Ice Co., Hamlet
Little River Ice Co. of Zebulon, Inc., Zebulon
Xorlina Ice Corp., Norlina
Independent Electric Ice Co., Wilson
Wilson Ice & Coal Co.. Wilson
PAGE 1 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1955
Poultry Growing-Processing Becomes Large State Industry
Phenomenal is the word that describes the develop-ment
of the poultry industry in North Carolina dur-ing
the past 15 years. Several areas in the State
have developed poultry raising to a remarkable ex-tent
due to the impetus given by poultry officials of
the N. C. Department of Agriculture and N. C. State
College, working in conjunction with poultry feed
mills in'the State. Processing was a natural step and
numbers of small poultry firms have developed into
large processors, particularly in the 1940-50 decade.
North Carolina is in especially good position in
poultry raising and processing. Most of the plants
are of medium size, are home-owned and operated,
and are strategicallv located for splendid distribu-tion
in this State and outside. The only two large
outside producers are Swift and Company, Greens-boro,
and Priebe & Sons, Inc., Concord and Laurin-burg,
both nationally-known and well-established
firms.
Until 1940 the bulk of North Carolina poultry was
shipped to other states for processing. The first
processing plant was established by the Central
Carolina Farmers Exchange in Durham in 1931.
Since then, numbers of processing plants have been
established, usually in the heavy poultry growing
areas, chief of which are Wake, Wilkes, Buncombe,
Durham, Mecklenburg, Burke, Union, and a few
other counties. Many of these were established and
received impetus from Government needs during
World War II.
In 1940 North Carolina plants processed only 4,-
400 000 broilers (fryers) . Within five years process-ing
'was quadrupled, reaching 17,940,000 broilers
in 1955. In the next decade processing trebled again,
reaching an estimated 55,000,000 broilers for this
year. Income to poultry raisers in 1940 was $3,945,-
000, jumping to $15,542,000 in 1945 and to an esti-mated
$45,000,000 for 1955. This year gross sales
by the processors should reach $54,000,000. North
Carolina plants bring in probably 10,000,000 broil-ers
from outside the State and probably ship 5,000,-
000 broilers to outside processors. State producers
ship out more live hens than are processed in the
State, shipping probably 12,000,000 hens a year.
Turkey processing is developing rapidly in the
State, a few firms processing turkeys exclusively and
several other firms handling turkeys along with
their chicken processing. The State now contains
about 175 poultry processing plants, large and small.
Articles follow on some of the larger plants in the
State, practically all of them starting as very small
operations.
FARMERS EXCHANGE, INC.
POULTRY DEPARTMENT
Durham, N. C.
Central Carolina Farmers Exchange, Inc., Gilbert
Street, Durham, using Farmers Exchange as its
short name, was organized in 1930 as an agency to
furnish a market for farm products over a five-county
area and to serve as a buying agency for farm
and home supplies and equipment for its members
and patrons. Not the least of the many services to
POULTRY PROCESSORS ASSOCIATE
TO PROMOTE INDUSTRY INTERESTS
One of the youngest but most active organizations in
North Carolina's expanding poultry industry is the N. C.
Poultry Processors Association.
Organized in March, 1950 by 22 active members, the
association has continued to grow each year. Its achieve-ments
have been many and the efforts of the members are
constantlv aimed at improving the assembly, processing
and distribution of poultry in North Carolina. Their ob-jectives
have always been unselfish with first thought being
given to the benefits which may be derived by the entire
poultry industry.
During recent years, North Carolina's poultry processing
industry has gained national recognition for its size and
efficient operation and has been studied by poultry interests
throughout the country. Much of the credit for this ac-complishment
must go to the processors association whose
members have devoted their time toward working together,
discussing their mutual problems and helping each other.
Their efforts were the main contributing factors in a rapidly
expanding industry developing into the most efficient food
processing industry in the state.
Among the leaders in organizing the association was
Ralph B. Kelly, poultrv marketing specialist with the N. C.
Department of Agriculture. Kelly realized that such an
organization could more or less steer the course which the
industry could follow.
Officers of the Association for 1955 are: president, E. T.
Watson Raleigh; vice president, Earl Carriker, Charlotte;
secretary-treasurer, Ralph B. Kelly.—Data by Ralph B.
Kelly.
the farmers in this area are the poultry processing
operations, starting from scratch in 1931 and now
handling an annual business in excess of $2,500,000.
An entirely new processing plant is being erected,
which is expected to increase annual gross sales to
$4,000,000.
Within a year after the Farmers Exchange began
operations, including the sale of live chickens and
eggs, it began processing poultry in a washpot in a
basement corner. In a short time, this plant was
processing 500 birds a day and employing six or
eight workers in this unit. In 1936 a new building
50 x 80 feet was erected to handle the poultry proc-essing
operations. Three enlargements have been
made to this plant, one about each five years, until
the plant is now 135 x 75 feet.
A new poultrv building of brick, steel and concrete
is now being erected on Latta Street and is expected
to be occupied before this year is over. This build-ing,
part of it two stories high, is 140 x 200 feet,
containing about 31,000 sq. ft. of floor space. This
plant and equipment will cost approximately $200,-
000 and production is expected to be doubled in due
time. ^
The Farmers Exchange Poultry Department now
buys around 3,000,000 birds in the five-county area
and processes about 8,000,000 lbs. annually. Grow-ers
in the area are paid around $2,250,000 for the
chickens thev raise. Probably half of the production
is sold in central and eastern North Carolina and the
other half goes to northern markets. The depart-ment
operates 15 trucks in hauling in live birds and
delivering processed poultry. The department em
ploys about 120 workers and has an annual payrol
Winter-Spring, 1955 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 1 1
New and entirely modern poultry department building of
the Farmers' Exchange, Durham
of around $180,000. When the new plant is occupied,
about 150 will be employed.
Among its other services to farmers in the area,
the Farmers Exchange operates a livestock public
auction at a site near Hillsboro. Located here is an
abattoir at which slaughtering is done on a custom
basis and for patrons of the Exchange's freezer lock-er
storage space in the Durham plant. About 150
hogs and cattle are slaughtered each week. Other
services include operation of one of the South's finest
hatcheries, warehouse and 8 service stores in 5 coun-ties,
sales of chickens and eggs, cleaning and selling
seeds, grading feed, truck service, and other related
activities. The Exchange operates plants or retail
outlets, or both, in Durham, Hillsboro, Pittsboro,
Siler City, Oxford, Roxboro, Creedmoor and Carr-boro.
When the Farmers Exchange was first organized
in 1930 during the worst depression period in many
years, it had only 400 stockholders, most of them sub-scribing
to one to five shares at $1.00 each. A few
took 10 shares. Operations started March 13, 1930,
with a paid-in capital of about $1400.
John Sprunt Hill, Durham financier, farmer and
philanthropist, assisted the new Farmers Exchange
during its organization, helped it get started and
paid the salary of its manager for three years. His
son, George Watts Hill, arranged a line of credit up
to $10,000 in the Durham Bank and Trust Co.
Weathering the depression storm, the Farmers Ex-change
gradually increased its activities until today
it employs about 350 workers and has an annual pay-roll
of about $750,000. Its business last year ap-proached
$14,000,000. The plant and equipment are
now worth about $1,115,000 and total assets are
about $2,850,000.
Policies and practices of the Farmers Exchange
are determined by a board of 15 directors, 14 of
whom are elected by the 15,000 stockholders in the
five-county area. The fifteenth director is named as
a public director by the Dean of Agriculture of N. C.
State College. The officers and directors include
W. M. Bacon, Durham County, president; O. K.
Goodwin, Durham County, vice-president; H. S. Ho-gan,
Orange County, secretary and treasurer, and
D. E. Townsend, Durham; W. H. Perry and C. W.
Lutterloh, Chatham ; Frank Oakley and Joseph Hall,
Person; C. W. Stanford and H. S. Walker, Orange;
R. T. Eakes and T. W. Allen, Granville, and Dr. H.
B. James, State College, public director.
C. W. Tilson was named manager at the
beginning, organized operations and has
continued to handle the business of the or-ganization.
Mr. Tilson is a native of Mars
Hill and a B.S. graduate in Animal Hus-bandry
and Economics of State College in
1924. He was engaged in 4-H Club work
in BuncomLe County and was county agri-cultural
agent in Jackson County when he
was selected on advice of Dean I. O. Schaub
of State College as manager of the Farm-ers
Exchange. In addition to handling his
principal job with entire satisfaction, he
has been active in civic and church work
as time permitted. He is a deacon of
the First Baptist Church, a memb:r and past pres-ident
of the Durham Kiwanis Club, a member of the
Governor's Reorganization Committee, is a director
of the Agricultural Foundation and former head of
the General Foundations of State College, and is a
director of the Durham and Southern Railroad, the
Durham Bank and Trust Co., the Durham United
Fund, and Long Meadows Farms.
H. C. Kennett, who started in 1931 and organized
and stili manages the Poultry Dept., is also assistant
general manager of the Farmers Exchange. He is a
native of the Pleasant Garden section of Guilford
County, received his B.S. degree in 1924 and M.S. in
1925 in Poultry Science at N. C. State College. He
was poultry marketing specialist for th: N. C. Dept.
of Agriculture for two years and served, in addition,
as supervisor of State Approved Hatcheries. When
he started with Farmers Exchange in 1931, he han-dled
the marketing of poultry and eggs and then de-veloped
the poultry processing activities. He is now
president of the North Carolina Poultry Council, im-mediate
past president of the Southeastern Poultry
and Egg Association, a former president of the N. C.
Processors Association, among other important posi-tions
held. He is also a director of the Durham Lions
Club, a steward in Trinity Methodist Church, presi-dent
of the State College Wolfpack Club and a Mason
and Shriner.
Packing for shipment at Farmers' Exchange, Durham,
25 lb. boxes of chickens
PAGE 1 2 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1955
HOLLY FARMS POULTRY CO., INC.
Wilkesboro—Winston-Salem, N. C.
Holly Farms Poultry Co., Inc., with a plant in
Wilkesboro and with a branch on Fayetteville Street,
Winston-Salem, was started as the result of farm
poultry operations in 1947 by Harry Hettiger and his
brother, Ed Hettiger, as the Wilkes Mountain Poul-try
Products Co. The name was changed to the pres-ent
name about three years ago. About two years
ago, C. Fred Lovett purchased the interest of Harry
Hettiger and last January bought out the interest of
his brother, Ed Hettiger.
Officers of the company are C. F. Lovette, presi-dent,
and his wife, Mrs. Margaret R. Lovette, secre-tary
and treasurer. They are the principal owners.
The poultry plants contain about 20,000 sq. ft. of
floor space and plant and equipment have a valuation
of around $250,000. The plants employ about 250
workers and have an annual payroll of approximate-ly
half-a-million dollars.
Holly Farms Poultry Co. processes approximately
10,000,000 birds, or around 25,000,000 lbs. of birds
annually. Of these, about 85% are broilers (fryers)
and about 15% hens. Gross annual sales reach ap-proximately
$12,000,000. Probably 10 % of the proc-essed
birds are sold in North Carolina. The remain-der
are distributed throughout the Eastern Seaboard
and go into the Midwest states. The company ope-rates
a fleet of about 35 units in hauling in live birds
and in delivering the processed chickens.
This firm enters into contract with about 60 grow-ers,
covering a radius of about 40 miles from Wilkes-boro,
to raise chickens. Holly Farms Poultry fur-nishes
the young chicks and the feed, paying the
growers to handle the poultry until it reaches a mar-ketable
size. Additional birds are bought from indi-vidual
growers in Wilkes and surrounding counties.
Last December, Mr. Lovette purchased the P. K.
Poultry Co., Inc., Fayetteville Street, Winston-Salem.
This plant is about half the size of the Wilkesboro
plant and produces approximately half as many
birds. This branch employs about 75 workers. C.
A. Peterson is manager of the Winston-Salem opera-tions.
Mr. Lovette is a native of Wilkes County and for
several years was a dealer in live chickens, as was
his father, C. O. Lovette.
PRIEBE & SONS, INC.
Concord, N. C.
PRIEBE-PIETRUS POULTRY CO.
Raeford, N. C.
Priebe & Sons, Inc., a multi-million dollar corpora-tion,
with home office at 110 North Franklin Street,
Chicago, and poultry plants in about a dozen places
in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, and Missouri, in recent
years has opened two poultry plants in North Caro-lina,
one for processing chickens in Concord and the
other for processing turkeys near Raeford.
Priebe & Sons was started in 1890 by W. F. Priebe,
Sr., as a produce buying station at Minonk. 111. Poul-try
and eggs were the chief products handled. The
firm was started as W. F. Priebe Co. and around 1900
started processing poultry in a small way at Hum-boldt,
Iowa. Through consolidations and purchases,
the company finally was operating about 25 plants,
largely in midwestern states. Two of Mr. Priebe's
sons, who grew up with the business, took over opera-tions
following his death. Frank A. Priebe is presi-dent
and W. F. Priebe, Jr., is secretary and treas-urer.
The firm is still family- owned and controlled.
The Concord plant was leased by Priebe & Sons
in 1951, the first to be operated in the South. This
plant was built and operated by a group of farmers
and businessmen in the area. One of the chief pro-moters
was W. A. Lowder, of the Southern Flour
Mills, Inc., Albemarle. The plant was operated as
such only four months when it was leased to Priebe
& Sons with option to buy. The plant, built of brick
and concrete blocks, is on a two-acre site and the
building contains 25,000 sq. ft. of space. The leasing
firm added much new and expensive equipment for
poultry processing. The plant and equipment are
probably worth around $250,000.
At the Concord plant, Priebe & Sons handles an-nually
around 3,500,000 broilers and fryers, amount-ing
to approximately 10,000,000 lbs. of birds. Live
chickens are purchased from growers in Cabarrus,
Chatham, Union, Wilkes and other counties up to
100 miles away. Each year chicken growers are paid
about $2,500,000 for chickens processed in the plant.
The firm operates eight large live poultry trucks in
picking up chickens at the farms.
These chickens are all completely eviscerated,
ready for the cooking pan. All are government in-spected
and they are shipped over the entire United
States. Probably half of the plant's production is
purchased by the Federal Government and shipped
to government installations for the armed forces in
this and numbers of foreign countries. Gross an-nual
sales reach approximately $4,000,000.
Joseph M. Kidd is plant manager; L. D. Coats is
plant superintendent, and Alan Graves is office man-ager.
Mr. Kidd and Mr. Coats came to Concord in
1951 to take over the plant and install needed equip-ment
and machinery. Mr. Kidd, from Iowa, has been
with the company for 20 years, working up from the
bottom and holding practically every type of job in
poultry processing. Mr. Coats also came from Iowa
and has been with the company for 12 years. Mr.
Graves is a member of the Concord Rotary Club and
is interested in other civic affairs.
The Priebe-Pietrus Poultry Co. at Raeford, a sub-sidiary
of Priebe & Sons, was started in May, 1953.
Previously, the plant had been operated as Turkalina
Farms, a cooperative organization started by local
growers in 1951. Originally, the plant was a freezer
locker, and a plant containing about 25,000 sq. ft. of
floor space was added for turkey processing. Bonnor
Thomason, one of the owners, bought out the other
cooperative stockholders and leases the plant to
Priebe-Pietrus.
In 1954 the neAV firm processed approximately
3,000,000 pounds of turkeys, eviscerated and ready!
for the oven, under United States Government super- 1
vision graded and inspected. At this plant, too, ap-proximately
50 percent of the output is sold to the:
United States Government for camps and other gov-j
ernment installations, much of it going to the armed)
forces in foreign countries.
Close to $1,000,000 is spent each year for turkeys,)
all of which are purchased in North Carolina. The!
firm operates seasonally for about eight months in
Winter-spring, 1955 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 13
the year, and is closed down the other four months.
It operates six or eight trucks, with specially built
coops for turkeys, to pick up the turkeys purchased
at the farms in the areas. During the period of
operation the firm employs about 100 workers and
has an annual payroll of approximately $200,000.
James Barnes, of Fayetteville, a native of the area,
has been manager of the Priebe-Pietrus plant since
it was started in 1953.
WATSON SEAFOOD & POULTRY CO., INC.
Raleigh, N. C.
Watson Seafood & Poultry Co., Inc., Rock Quarry
Rd., Raleigh, was organized in 1946, bought out the
operation of the Hudson Seafood Co. and in less than
10 years has built a business with gross annual sales
of approximately $4,000,000.
Hudson Seafood Co., in operation since 1932, pur-chased
a site of 65 acres on the Rock Quarry Road
and used 21 acres as a site for operations. A cinder-block
building 30 x 120 feet was erected. Early ope-rations
had been in seafoods largely, but in 1942
poultry processing was added. After E. T. Watson
purchased the plant in 1946, he operated under the
Hudson name for about a year, then changed it to
the present name.
Mr. Watson was individual owner until 1952 when
he incorporated the business with an authorized cap-ital
of $200,000. It is still a family-owned operation,
the officers being E. T. Watson, president and treas-urer,
and Mrs. Jessie F. Watson, his wife, vice-presi-dent
and secretary. Mr. Watson has expanded opera-tions
to meet processing needs until he now has a
plant containing 15,000 sq. ft. of floor space. The
plant and equipment are worth around $150,000 and
capital assets are about $175,000. The firm employs
about 150 workers with an annual payroll of around
$302,820.97.
Poultry operations now consist of more than 90 %
of the business of Watson Seafood & Poultry Co.
Processed chickens are the principal product, al-though
turkeys are processed seasonally. The firm
buys its poultry largely from Chatham, Randolph,
Moore and Wake counties, although some are pur-chased
in Georgia and Virginia. The poultry is pick-ed
by automatic process, eviscerated and head and
feet removed ready for cooking. Offals are sold for
grease, soap, dog and chicken food and fertilizer. Of
the birds, hens and broilers are the chief product,
about 5,000,000 having been processed last year. In
fact, Watson Seafood & Poultry Co. has increased its
production about 200 °/c each year for the eight com-pleted
years of operation.
Watson Seafood & Poultry Co. continues to do
probably 10% of its business in handling seafood.
Fish, oysters, shrimp and other seafoods are brought
in in refrigerated trucks from Norfolk and North
Carolina ports, including Morehead City, Oriental,
Hobucken, Vandemere and other seafood points.
Mr. Watson, now president of the North Carolina
Poultry Association, is a native of Pamlico County
and was engaged in seafood handling for a number
of years. He worked on a boat as quartermaster for
a year and for about four years peddled fish and
oysters from a truck from New Bern as far west as
Winston-Salem. From 1939 to 1941 he hauled pro-duce
from Florida to northern markets for S. M.
Processing chickens at Watson's Seafood d- Poultry Co., Raleigh
Jones Co., New Bern. Then from 1941 he peddled
fish again until he bought the Hudson firm in 1946.
Mr. Watson is active in civic affairs to the extent that
his business will permit. He is a member of the
Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and of the Church of
Christ.
BREEDEN POULTRY & EGG CO.
Morganton. N. C.
Breeden Poultry & Egg Co., South Sterling Street,
Morganton, has had its ups and downs, but since the
business was reopened in 1950 by R. T. Breeden, sole
owner, it has been unusually successful. Last year,
for example, the firm had gross sales of approxi-mately
5,750,000 fowls, which was an increase of 37
percent over the business handled in 1953.
Mr. Breeden, a barber by trade and a native of
Jefferson County, Tenn., started buying chickens and
eggs and hauling them to various markets for sale.
From that activity he began dressing a few chickens
for sale. He suspended these activities for a period
and again in 1950 began processing and selling chick-ens,
employing 35 or 40 people. Since that time, he
has made two enlargements of his plant, giving him
five or six times as much space as was contained in
the original building.
Breeden Poultry & Egg Co. purchases most of its
chickens within a 50 mile radius of the plant. Last
Delivery truck of large Breeden Poultry d- Egg Co., Morganton
PAGE 14 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1955
year the company paid chicken growers, largely in
North Carolina, more than $4,000,000 for chickens
they produced. Last year total sales amounted to
5,500,000 fryers, or approximately 16,000,000 lbs.,
and 250,000 hens, or around 625,000 lbs. The firm
employs around 130 workers and has an annual pay-roll
of approximately $250,000. Breeden products
are sold in states along the Southeastern Seaboard.
Seven refrigerated tractor-trailers are operated in
delivering the firm's products. Breeden chickens
are sold under the "Pride of Blue Ridge" brand.
In 1952 the Breeden firm incorporated the B & L
Feed and Supply Co. to finance the purchase of feed
and the cost of raising chickens among the farmers
in the area from which birds are purchased.
Also Processes Pork and Beef—
CHATHAM FOODS, INC.
Siler City, N. C.
Chatham Foods, Inc., Highway 421-S, Siler City,
was organized and incorporated in 1942 and started
hole-in-the-wall poultry processing. Six years later
this firm began processing pork and beef products,
and last year gross annual sales reached approxi-mately
$2*000,000.
J. B. Wood, organizer of the business and the only
active officer in the organization, started processing
about 1,000 chickens a day in a 20 x 40 ft. plant with
about 15 employees. Two trucks were used, one for
bringing in live chickens, the other for distributing
processed chickens. Soon the firm outgrew its space
and in 1943 bought a two-acre site on the southern
edge of Siler City and put up a one-story brick build-ing
105 x 175 feet, including two refrigerating rooms
30 x 60 feet.
In 1948 Chatham Foods started processing pork
and beef products in a new building 75 x 195 feet, on
the same site and facing Highway 421. The plant
and equipment are now valued at $450,000 and the
firm employs about 125 workers, with an annual pay-roll
ranging around $250,000.
Chatham Foods now operates over the entire State
from the mountains to the sea. Eight salesmen cover
the territory and a fleet of three special trucks for
bringing in live poultry and 11 refrigerator trucks
for deliveries, which are made twice a week, are
operated. The poultry plant processes about 2,000,-
000 fowls or 6,000,000 lbs. of chickens annually.
About 95% of the production is fryers, the remainder
hens and turkeys. Approximately $1,810,000 is paid
to growers of poultry, hogs and cattle purchased by
Chatham Foods. Practically all poultry, hogs and
cattle are bought on the market, largely from Chat-ham,
but some also from Moore and Lee counties.
Hogs are bought from local auction markets and
are slaughtered by other firms, including Lundy
Front of Chatham Food's. Siler City, which processes pork
and beef as well as poultry
Packing Co., Clinton, and Randolph Packing Co.,
Asheboro. Hams and sides are purchased raw and
are cured, smoked, and processed into hams and ba-con
and sausage items, including sausage and meat
loaf, and with beef are processed into frankfurters
and bologna. Production of the plant is about half
poultry and about half pork and beef.
Chatham Foods started with an authorized capital
of $100,000, with $60,000 paid in. The authorized
capital has been increased to $500,000 and capital
assets now reach $250,000. J. B. Wood is president
and general manager of the plant. Other officers, all
inactive in the firm, are J. K. Boling, vice-president
;
K. G. Clapp, secretary; H. E. Stout, treasurer, and
F. J. Boling, chairman of the board. The inactive
officers are all actively engaged in furniture manu-facturing
and other enterprises in and around Siler
City.
Mr. Wood, who has handled Chatham Foods since
it was organized, is a native of Catawba County and
was engaged in the food business in Charlotte for 15
years. He came to Siler City in 1942 to organize and
start Chatham Foods. He is immediate past mayor
of Siler City, member and former president of the
Siler City Rotary Club, and a past master of Siler
City Lodge of Masons. His son, J. B. Wood, Jr., re
cently returned from two years of Army service
and is again active in the business as sales and pro-duction
manager.
Solid truckload of Chatham Foods, Siler City, going to
Charlotte for Store's grand opening
CARRIKER POULTRY CO.
Charlotte, N. C.
Carriker Poultry Co., 2811 Central Avenue, Char-lotte,
had its beginning in the back yard of the Car-riker
Farm in Union County in 1934, moved to its
present site in 1938, and has since expanded its ope-rations
until its gross sales now range between $c
500,000 and $4,000,000.
Earl A. Carriker, who started dressing poultry
raised on the Carriker Farm in the Carriker com
munity about 10 miles from Monroe, soon afterward
erected a small plant at the site on Route 3, Monroe.
Here, with about a dozen employees, poultry raised
on nearby farms was processed. Because of lack of
Winter-spring, 1955 THE E. S. C QUARTERLY PAGE 15
labor and water he moved to Charlotte in 1938 and
operated a small leased plant. The next year he
purchased about an acre of land and put up a frame
building 40 x 80 feet, at which time 30 to 40 workers
were employed. In 1949 he doubled the size of his
plant, his production and his employees.
In 1953 Mr. Carriker again doubled his produc-tion
space and production, his plant now containing
about 15,000 sq. ft. In 1953 he spent more than
$100,000 in new buildings and equipment, which now
has a valuation ranging around $200,000. The firm
now employs about 125 workers, the plant payroll
ranging around $185,000 a year.
Carriker Poultry sales are concentrated largely in
North and South Carolina, but approximately 25%
of production is shipped to several points in the Mid-west.
Bulk of the poultry processed is in fryers and
hens, with some seasonal turkey processing and occa-sionally
ducks and geese. The chickens are brought
into the plant alive, are killed, the feathers and vis-cera
removed, and the head and feet cut off. These
offals are sold for use in making animal feeds and
for making fertilizer. Approximately 5,000,000 birds
are bought, processed and sold each year. These are
shipped to and from the plant by the firm's own
trucks and by trucking firms.
Carriker is engaged in farming out baby chicks
over a wide area surrounding Charlotte. The firm
operates one hatchery on the Thrift Road, out of
Charlotte, and uses the services of three other hatch-eries
in the area. Each week the firm puts out about
30,000 baby chicks in Mecklenburg, Lincoln and Un-ion
Counties, and each week gathers in about that
many mature chickens. Additional chickens, proba-bly
about half of the number processed, are purchas-ed
in the Ellerbe, Siler City, Parkwood, North
Wilkesboro and Statesville, and Batesburg, S. C,
areas. The Carriker Farm in Union County con-tinues
to produce about 40,000 chicks a year. The
firm also handles eggs, buying them for hatching
purposes and for resale.
Carriker Poultry Co. is headed by Earl A. Car-riker,
president and treasurer ; Mrs. Thelma W. Car-riker,
his wife, vice-president, and William H. Aber-nethy,
Charlotte attorney, secretary. The Carriker
Feed Co., also owned by Mr. and Mrs. Carriker, has
the same officers. This firm was incorporated last
year to handle feed and supplies for the firm, the
farmers who raised the chickens, and also in handl-ing
the distribution and collection of the baby chicks.
Mr. Carriker got his training in processing poul-try
at the Carriker Farm in Union County and has
built his poultry processing industry from the ground
up into one of the important plants of this type in
the State. He is an active member of the Southern
Poultry Association and last year was State chair-man
for North Carolina of the Advertising Commit-tee
of this Association.
WHITE OAK ACRES, INC.
Monroe, N. C.
White Oak Acres, Inc., 203-215 Depot St., Monroe,
was started at Wingate on the Lowery Farm, from
which it takes its name, by Edwin L. Lowery, who
found himself out of a job and started peddling eggs
in Charlotte. In the 23 years of operation, this firm
has increased its production until gross annual sales
are now approximately $3,250,000.
Mr. Lowery, a mechanical engineer, for two years
was with Bell Telephone and Telegraph Co. in New
York City. As the depression grew more tense, he,
as a younger employee, was laid off. He returned to
the farm at Wingate and, in addition to peddling
eggs, he began dressing and peddling poultry with
two or three helpers. This venture was successful,
and in 1942 he moved to Monroe and bought a freezer
locker storage plant, which is still operated. As the
poultry processing expanded, he added more employ-ees
and continued to build new production space.
Today the White Oak Acres plant contains about
25,000 sq. ft. and plant and equipment are valued at
approximately $140,000. The firm employs around
100 workers and has an annual payroll close to
$200,000. Around 1,745,000 chickens are processed
annually and gross sales reach about $3,250,000.
Included in the sales, in addition to completely dress-ed
chickens, are about 180,000 frozen items in pound
packs containing legs, wings, and other chicken parts.
The firm also continues to buy, grade, candle, pack
and sell eggs.
White Oak Acres buys its chickens largely from
Union, Chatham and Wilkes counties and sells its
products practically all over North and South Caro-lina
and Georgia. In its deliveries 25 trucks are
operated on regular routes twice a week.
When the business was moved from Wingate to
Monroe in 1942, the company was incorporated and
officers at that time were Hoyle C. Griffin, president
;
E. B. Funderburk, vice-president (inactive), and E.
L. Lowery, secretary-treasurer and general manager.
Joel Griffin was a stockholder and director.
In 1949 Miss Agnes Helms and the two remaining
officers bought the interests held by Hovle and Joel
Griffin. In the reorganization which followed. Miss
Helms was elected president; Mr. Funderburk con-tinues
as inactive vice-president, and Mr. Lowery
continues as secretary-treasurer and general man-ager.
These three officers are the directors and own
the business.
Miss Helms, a native of Union County, is a grad-uate
of Wingate High School and a business grad-
Production line poultry processing at White Oak Acres, Monroe
PAGE 16 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1955
uate of Wingate Junior College. She started work at
White Oak Acres at a tender age as bookkeeper and
has been with the company for 20 years. She work-ed
up through the ranks and has been assistant man-ager
for a number of years. When she bought an
interest in the business in 1949, she was elected
president and has since held that position. Mr. Low-ery,
founder of the business, is a native of Wingate
and a 1930 graduate in Mechanical Engineering of
the University of North Carolina. He has served an
important post in numbers of local organizations, in-cluding
president of the Monroe Rotary Club ; chair-man
of the Executive Board of Wingate Junior Col-lege
; member of the Union County Board of Educa-tion,
a director in Boy Scout work, director of Mon-roe
Executive Club, and treasurer of Wingate Bap-tist
Church.
MORGAN & SONS POULTRY CO., INC.
Guilford College, N. C.
Morgan & Sons Poultry Co., Route 1, Guilford Col-lege,
had its beginning in 1947 when G. C. Morgan
and his son, Paul Morgan, started a small poultry
processing plant. In the seven years since the firm
started, it has expanded to the point that it does a
business close to $2,000,000 annually.
Actually, the firm laid the foundation for a proc-essing
plant years earlier, in 1928, when Mr. Morgan
began breeding poultry under the firm name of Mor-gan
Poultry Farm. The first unit of the processing
plant, started in 1947, contained 200 sq. ft. of tem-porary
operation space. In the first week 65 chickens
were processed by hand. Meantime, the firm started
on a new site on the Morgan Farm, the building now
containing 8,500 sq. ft, and is equipped with the most
modern poultry processing machinery available. Ad-ditions
were made to the building and new equipment
installed as the business continued to prosper.
In 1948 James C. Morgan joined his father and his
brother in the partnership, the firm continuing as
such until 1953 when it was incorporated under the
present name. Morgan & Sons Poultry Co. now
processes approximately 2,000,000 birds a year,
largely broilers (fryers), and also some hens. Most
of the chickens processed by the plant are grown in
Guilford County, although some are brought in from
Chatham and other poultry growing areas. Approx-imately
$1,500,000 is paid out each year to the grow-ers
for the chickens processed. The firm employs
from 75 to 80 workers and has an annual payroll
ranging around $150,000.
"Morgan's Prime Poultry"is sold locally along the
Eastern Seaboard
and into the Mid-west.
The firm ope-rates
a fleet of 15
units for hauling
chickens to the plant
and for distributing
dressed chickens to
the retail units
throughout the area
served.
After the death of
Processing poultry at Morgan & G. C. Morgan, the
Sons near Guilford College founder, his three
Tree-shaded plant of Morgan d- Sons near Guilford College
sons became the principal officers. James C. Mor-gan
became president; Paul Morgan is secretary-treasurer
and general manager: Carl J. Morgan,
the youngest son, is vice-president, and Hoyt L. Smith
is plant manager. Members of the firm are members
of the National Broiler Council and the N. C. Poultry
Processers Association.
G. C. Morgan was a native of Guilford County and
developed poultry breeding on the Morgan Farm,
starting in 1947 the poultry processing activities
which he continued until his death last year. All of
his sons grew up in the poultry business. James
Morgan continued with the plant after completing
high school. He is a leader in Boy Scout. Paul Mor-gan
attended nearby Oak Ridge Institute and enter-ed
Duke University where he took training for the
Navy, in which he served for three years. Carl J.
Morgan completed two years of service in the Army
in Germany recently and returned to the plant.
ALMOND BROS. POULTRY CO.
Albemarle, N. C.
Almond Bros. Poultry Co., Route 4, near Albe-marle,
was organized and started in 1946 by two
brothers, J. W. and E. K. Almond, after these broth-ers
had started dressing poultry on their father's
farm and peddling it in the neighborhood in 1937.
The plant now processes and distributes approxi-mately
2,000,000 chickens annually.
In their earlier days, the two brothers handled the
business entirely, except for occasional part-time
help. They would dress about 35 chickens a week
and peddle them to individuals in Albemarle and the
rural area, in which the Almond Farm was located.
Packing processed birds for shipment at Almond Bros,
near Albemarle
Winter-Spring, 1955 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY
The present plant is located on a one-acre site on the
Albemarle-Charlotte Highway and is a part of the
Almond Farm on which the partners grew up.
In 1946 Almond Bros. Poultry Co. purchased a
knocked-down aluminum Government building in
South Carolina and rebuilt it on the present site.
This building was 24 x 40 feet. Since that time,
five additions have been made and the plant occupies
5,700 sq. ft. of space. The plant and equipment are
valued at about $65,000. The partnership employs
about 60 workers and has an annual payroll of
around $110,000.
Almond Bros, purchases chickens from Stanly,
Montgomery and other nearby counties. The firm
processes about 2,000,000 chickens annually, or ap-proximately
6,000,000 pounds. These birds are sold
over a radius of about 200 miles from Albemarle to
jobbers and to A & P, Colonial and other chain and
retail stores. Ten trucks are operated and make
from two to five deliveries weekly.
Both of the Almond brothers were born within 200
yards of where their plant is now located. J. W. Al-mond
finished high school and continued to look after
the business while his brother, E. K. Almond, went
to N. C. State College and took a course in Poultry
Science, graduating in 1945.
NOTE—Webster Poultry Co., Pittsboro, on page *54.
PAGE 1 7
Now Come the Turkeys—
MARSHVILLE TURKEY CO., INC.
Marshville, N. C.
Marshville Turkey Co., Inc., Marshville, was or-ganized
early in 1952 by a group of Marshville area
turkey growers seeking an outlet for their flocks of
turkeys. In the three years of operation of this U. S.
Government inspected plant and State graded tur-keys,
this firm has developed until its gross annual
sales are striking close at the $2,000,000 mark.
These turkey growers, first as partners, and when
the firm was incorporated, its stockholders and di-rectors
include W. A. Caudle, president; J. T. Cau-dle,
vice-president; R. S. Hargett, secretary: Charles
H. Griffin, manager; R. A. Thomas, L. Huntley, Jr.,
and Louis Rivers.
The Marshville Turkey Co. selected a site two miles
west of Marshville on Highway 74 and erected a
thoroughly modern and completely fire proof build-ing
of masonry construction, containing 13,000 sq.
ft. of space. The building is valued at $64,000, the
site at $4,000, the machinery and plant equipment at
$83,000, and the firm operates a fleet of 10 trucks
and trailers valued at $65,000. The firm has devel-oped
capital assets of $186,000.
The already well-known "Marvilla" grade A tur-keys,
the "Norline" grade B turkeys, and the C grade
turkeys are produced by this firm. These turkeys
are distributed throughout the entire Eastern Sea-board
from Boston to Miami. This firm processes
turkeys only, of the Beltsville Whites, Broad Breast-ed
Bronze and Broad Breasted Whites types, all lead-ing
turkey breeds. During the normal processing
season of about eight months in the year, the Marsh-ville
plant will process about 4,000,000 lbs. of tur-keys,
dressed weight. All of these are purchased
from Union and surrounding counties. The firm
employs about 110 people in the plant and as truck
drivers, and the seasonal payroll amounts to about
$65,000.
wsmSiSmmnmwaE:
Turkey processing plant of Marshville Turkey Co., home
of Marvilla turkeys
All of the men included in this organization are
turkey growers and their turkeys as well as those of
many other growers in the area, pass through this
processing plant. Charles H. Griffin, firm member
and plant manager, is a native of Union County, does
all the purchasing of turkeys and also handles the
selling end of the business. He is still on the sunny
side of 40 years, is married and has one child.
MONROE TURKEY PROCESSING PLANT, INC.
Monroe, N. C.
Monroe Turkey Processing Plant, Inc., Monroe,
was organized in May, 1949, by a group of feed deal-ers,
hatcherymen, and turkey growers in and around
Union County, to provide a market for turkeys grown
in the area and to expand turkey growing as a cash
crop in diversified farming. Today the firm's "Mo-noca"
and "Astor" brands of birds are distributed
along the Eastern Seaboard from New York to
Miami and westward from the Seaboard states. The
annual sales volume now exceeds $2,000,000.
By August, 1949, a plant to process poultry under
Federal and State inspection was completed and ope-rations
started. During that early period, the plant
capacity was 22,000 lbs. live weight birds a day, and
during the first year 1,800,000 lbs. of ready-to-cook
turkeys were processed. William T. Griffin was
general manager of the plant, which then employed
about 70 workers for about six months in the year.
Officers of the company included Hoyle C. Griffin,
Monroe, president ; J. J. Griffin, Marshville, vice-president
; William T. Griffin, Marshville, secretary-treasurer,
who with Tom B. Rushing and Kermit A.
Rushing, Marshville; J. Earl Griffin, Monroe; H. R.
Biggers, Charlotte, and E. B. Funderburk, Lancaster,
S. C, form the board of directors and are also the
stockholders. Present officers are the same except
that in January, 1950, Max F. Parker replaced Mr.
Griffin as manager, a position he still holds, and be-came
a stockholder and director in 1952.
In 1952 a freezer-storage building was constructed
and began operation October 15. The sharp freezer
has two compartments maintained at a temperature
of 20 to 30 degrees below zero. Used alternately,
these compartments give the plant a freezing capac-ity
of 50,000 pounds. The storage room has a hold-ing
capacity of 900,000 pounds and is kept at tem-peratures
from five to eight degrees, In addition,
the company has two assembly rooms, one for re-ceiving
and the other for delivering.
Plant enlargement, installation of more efficient
processing equipment, and the freezer-storage addi-tion
have enabled the company to increase the proc-essing
plant capacity until in 1954 more than 60,000
PAGE 18 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1955
lbs. live weight turkeys could be processed daily. The
total ready-to-cook weight of turkeys processed in
the 1954-55 season was 6,670,000 lbs. The plant
employs approximately 110 workers and the yearly
payroll is around $120,000. The company has a paid-in
capital of $58,500, with a surplus of $46,000, and
the book value of fixed assets is $178,900.
Turkey processing is a seasonal operation, but the
Monroe Turkey Processing Plant has extended the
season in its six years of operation from six months
to about 10 months. The past season began late in
April and closed in mid-February. The turkeys
processed are grown largely within a 50 mile radius
of the plant and the growing is supervised largely
by the stockholders. A small percentage is brought
in from distances up to 200 miles. The increase in
production of turkeys is due in large part to the fact
that this plant and several others in the area assure
the growers of a steady market for their birds. Ap-proximately
30 percent of the output of the plant is
sold to the Armed Forces and distributed through-out
this country, some parts going to foreign coun-tries.
Shipments to the general trade cover an area
roughly outlined by Miami, Birmingham, Buffalo,
New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washing-ton
and Norfolk.
Directors of the Monroe Turkey Processing Plant
in July, 1951, found it advisable to separate the mar-keting
of the birds from the processing and formed
a separate corporation, Wishbone Turkeys, Inc.,
through which the turkeys are marketed. With one
exception, the stockholders of the two corporations
are the same. Officers of the newer corporation are
T. B. Rushing, president; J. Earl Griffin, vice-presi-dent;
E. B. Funderburk, secretary-treasurer, and
Max F. Parker is assistant secretary-treasurer and
general manager.
Most of the officers and directors have other busi-ness
connections and are inactive in the operation of
the two companies, leaving most of the management
to Max F. Parker, general manager. Mr. Parker is
a native of Monroe, Route 1, a graduate of the Uni-versity
of North Carolina, and served in the Air
Force in the ETO during World War II. He was
discharged in 1946 as a 1st Lieutenant. Prior to his
affiliation with the Monroe Turkey Processing Plant,
he was owner and operator of a seed-cleaning busi-ness
in Pageland, S. C. In 1950 Mr. Parker married
Miss Rebecca Napier and has one son. He is a Bap-tist
and a Mason.
NOTE—Priebe-Pietrus Poultry Co., Laurinburg, turkey processing, page 12.
N. C. Pork and Beef Processing Experiences Heavy Growth
Finer breeds of cattle and hogs in the last decade
have resulted in high-quality beef and pork. North
Carolina meats have reached a point in excellence
that compares favorably with beef and pork products
from any other section of the United States. In the
same period processing meat products has more than
doubled in this state.
Most of the hogs now raised and processed in
North Carolina are thinner and younger than pre-viously,
resulting in leaner and tenderer pork prod-ucts.
Probably more than half the hogs raised in
North Carolina are shipped on the hoof and process-ed
elsewhere. More of the cattle slaughtered and
processed in the State are grain-fed and much of the
grass-fed cattle is shipped out of the State in the fall
for slaughtering elsewhere.
Very little sheep slaughtering is done in the State.
Lamb pools are held in 12 centers, two or three times
a year, and from these around 15,000 head, probably
half of the State's production, are sold to meat pack-ers
for processing elsewhere. Recently most of these
have gone to Swift & Company. More of the lamb
pools are in Ashe, Alleghany, and Watauga counties
in the west and at Plymouth for a few surrounding
counties in the east.
As of January 1, 1955, the P'ederal-State Crop Re-porting
Services reports 1,154,000 head of swine,
267,000 of which were marketable hogs. In 1954
the gross cash value of hogs was $76,263,000, from
which $52,270,000 was received from hogs sold for
slaughter. Almost half of this value, or $24,092,000,
represents home-slaughtered hogs. Beef cattle rais-ing
has developed extensively in recent years. As of
January 1, inventory showed 358,000 beef cattle in
the State.
N. C. MEAT PACKERS ASSCIATION
NEW AND ACTIVE ORGANIZATION
North Carolina Meat Packers Association, Inc.,
was organized in November, 1954, at a meeting in
Raleigh attended by 15 of the prominent meat pack-ers
in the State. This organization was promoted by
L. Y. Ballentine, N. C. Commissioner of Agriculture,
and Dr. D. W. Colvard, Dean of the School of Agri-culture
of N. C. State College, and others in their or-ganization.
This association now has 34 members whose firms
produce 50% of all the meat sales made in North
Carolina. The organization plans to hold annual
meetings and the board of directors has scheduled
meetings about twice a year. A meeting was held in
Kinston March 19, and another at State College, Ral
eigh, in June.
Officers of the association are W. M. Elliott, White
Packing Co., Salisbury, president ; Vince Bode, Caro
lina Packers, Inc., Smithfield, vice-president; R. C.
Mollett, Frosty Morn Meats, Inc., Kinston, secretary
and Ed H. Curtis, Curtis Brothers, Inc., Greensboro
treasurer. Members of the board of directors arc
C. A. Bowman, Hickory Packing Co., Hickory; W. S
Kitchings, Statesville Packing Co., Statesville; A. B
Brady, Chadbourn Packing Co., Chadbourn ; Ton)
Shockley, Aberdeen Packing Co., Aberdeen, and G
C. Honeycutt, Sr., New Bern Provision Co., New
Bern.
it
WHITE PACKING CO., INC.
Salisbury, N. C.
White Packing Co., West Liberty Street Extension
Salisbury, started in 1922, is the pioneer meat pack
i'h
ft
i
N
Winter-Spring, 1955 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 19
ing plant in North Carolina and proudly boasts of
North Carolina's Inspection Certificate No. 1.
Through the years, this firm has continued its en-largement
of plant and expansion of sales and con-tinues
among the leaders of the pork and beef pack-ing
industry in North Carolina.
Actually, the seed were sown for this industry
when H. Z. White, from Lancaster County, S. C, used
the first $3.00 he earned to buy a calf, which he
slaughtered and sold at a profit of $3.00. At that
time the only assets he had were a good wife and sev-en
children. However, he started a grocery store and
some years later opened a fancy grocery and meat
market. With the help of his two young sons, Ben
B. White and the late J. Fred White, he began slaugh-tering
hogs and cattle for his market. Then he real-ized
the need for a wholesale meat distributor in this
area and increased his slaughtering operations and
began making frankfurters in a small building in the
rear of his home.
In 1920 W. M. Elliott and Kirby L. Cress married
his daughters, Naomi and Thetis, and since Mr. El-liott
had had considerable experience as a packer
salesman and Mr. Cress was an experienced meat-cutter,
they soon joined the Whites in their vision of
a Meat Packing House. In 1922 The White Peacock
Co. was formed with a friend, the late S. C. Peacock.
During this time there were only 12 to 15 employees,
under the direction of Ben White, and one salesman.
In 1924 Mr. Peacock's interest was purchased and
the small firm was incorporated in the name of the
White Packing Co. Officers were H. Z. White, presi-dent,
Ben B. White and W. M. Elliott, vice-presidents,
A. H. Snider, the only outside stockholder, secretary,
and Annie Lee White, Mr. White's daughter, treas-urer.
Three years after the business was organized H. Z.
White suffered a stroke of paralysis which forced
him to retire and soon after that his son-in-law, Kir-by
Cress, had to retire because of bad health. Al-though
Mr. White's leadership was greatly missed
;he firm continued to progress under the direction
Df Ben White and W. M. Elliott.
Mr. Snider died in 1937 and his interest was pur-chased
later, which left only members of the White
?amily owners of the firm. When Mr. White died in
940, W. M. Elliott was named president; Ben White,
/ice-president; Annie Lee W. Cress, secretary and
;reasurer, and Willis N. Dixon, sales manager. The
)resent officers are very much the same after 32
ears. Other members of the family who are offi-cers
or directors are Mrs. Louise W. Dixon, Mrs.
^aomi W. Elliott, Mrs. Thetis W. Cress and Mrs.
)velle W. Burton.
In the early days of White Packing Co. operations,
iractically all livestock slaughtered was shipped
n from other states. During the first year, only 100
logs were purchased in North Carolina. Today the
irm purchases practically all of the 50,000 hogs
laughtered each year and approximately 75 percent
f the 10,000 head of cattle slaughtered annually in
Jorth Carolina. All White products slaughtered and
istributed reach the huge total of 11,000,000 pounds
year. White products include a full line of pork
nd cured products, including hams, bacon, sausage,
ird, and other items, and produces from cattle and
(1ogs a full line of bologna and luncheon meats. Prod-ucts
are sold wholesale to retail merchants and insti-tutions
over the major part of North Carolina. Four-teen
salesmen and 12 refrigerated meat trucks cover
the sales area from the plant.
The White Packing Co. is located on a seven-acre
tract of land, with modern buildings containing about
150,000 sq. ft. of production and storage space. The
buildings and equipment are entirely modern. The
firm has plans drawn for a two-story addition, to con-tain
2,880 feet for the Rendering Dept. and has def-inite
plans for the erection of a modern new office
building. Employment is around 150, with 15 on the
farm.
White Packing Co., from its beginning, has spon-sored
cattle and hog improvement programs among
the growers through its purchasing area. In addi-tion
to working with other growers, the firm has
furnished a splendid example in the operation of a
model livestock farm in Rowan County. This firm
maintains a herd of pure bred Angus cattle and a
highly developed herd of pure bred Hampshire hogs.
These herds of cattle and hogs are raised primarily
for breeding purposes and are sold to growers
throughout the area. Leftovers are slaughtered in
the plant. The farm maintains from 25 to 30 brood
sows, producing about 35 litters a year, with an aver-age
of seven pigs to the litter. From 10,000 to 15,000
cattle are included each year in the feeding program
sponsored by the White Farm.
H. Z. White, founder of the business, was an or-phan
boy and worked on a farm until he was 17
years of age. He had practically no schooling up to
that time and decided he needed an education. He
covered the first seven grades in one year and in that
seventh grade he met a girl, Mary R. Bivens, who
later became Mrs. White. How he earned his sec-ond
$3.00 by slaughtering and selling a calf, and
operated a grocery store and then a fancy grocery
store, leading to his later meat packing operations,
have been mentioned. His native ability and belated
educational training furnished the impetus with
which he built a solid and successful meat packing
industry.
W. M. Elliott, president of the company, started
when the firm was organized as its only salesman.
He is a native of Mecklenburg County and was sales-man
in North and South Carolina for Kingan and Co.
and other meat packers for several years when he
joined White. Mr. Elliott is now president of the
North Carolina Meat Packers Association. He is
active in the Presbyterian Church, in the Salisbury
Chamber of Commerce and is a Mason.
Mrs. Annie Lee White Cress started keeping books
for her father while a school girl, and when the orig-inal
company was formed she became secretary and
treasurer, positions she has held for 32 years. Ben
B. White, vice-president, farm manager and livestock
buyer, like his father, H. Z. White, grew up with a
devotion for livestock and the meat industry. He is
a former trustee in the First Baptist Church and is
active in Pure Bred organizations in North Carolina
and Virginia.
SWIFT & COMPANY
Charlotte, N. C.
Swift & Company, the nation-wide meat packing
organization which is celebrating its centennial an-
PAGE 20 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1955
niversary during 1955, is a long-time resident of
North Carolina.
The first Swift establishment in this state was a
sales unit—or "branch house," as it then was known —built at Wilmington in 1903. The original Swift
interest in this state has grown during the past 52
years to 16 separate company units—a dairy and
poultry plant, refinery, two plant food factories, and
12 sales units.
In 1954, Swift installations spent almost 11 million
dollars in North Carolina for raw materials, pay-rolls,
supplies, taxes and other costs of doing busi-ness.
The company employed an average of 1,225
persons within the state.
These statistics tell only part of the story . . . but
statistics offer one way to measure what Swift &
Company has become today—100 years after Gus-tavus
Franklin Swift as a lad of 16 dressed his first
heifer back on Cape Cod—and they are impressive
statistics.
The little red wagon from which "Stave" Swift
peddled fresh meat to his neighbors has grown into
a fleet of 15,000 cars, trucks, and refrigerator cars
serving the nation. Company operations cover all
48 states. The business is really many businesses,
supplying not only a wide variety of meat products
for the American table, but dairy foods, poultry, fats
and oils.
Nationally, Swift employs about 78,000 persons,
more than 40 percent of whom have been with the
company 10 years or longer, and 18 percent for more
than 20 years.
The company is owned by 65,000 shareholders,
almost a third of whom have held their stock for 15
years or longer, and 4,500 for 30 years. Of these
shareholders, 345 are North Carolinians.
Throughout the United States and Canada, Swift
operates 55 meat packing plants, 290 sales units, 26
plant food factories, 7 refineries, 25 oil mills, 19 cot-ton
gins, 113 dairy and poultry plants, and 28 mis-cellaneous
units.
The business record of the company is outstanding
in a major American industry. It has paid a divi-dend
in every year except one H933) since incor-poration
in 1885. During the past four years, Swift
sales have exceeded 2.5 billion dollars annually, al-though
the company has operated on a profit margin
of about one per cent of the sales dollar.
Harold H. Swift, honorary chairman of the board,
is one of seven sons of the founder who have been
active in the business. The late Louis F. Swift and
G. F. Swift, Jr., served respectively as second and
third presidents, and it was during their time that
the company saw its greatest physical expansion on
the foundations laid by their father.
Some 95 per cent of Swift & Company's executive
staff have risen from the ranks. An outstanding
example is John Holmes, chairman of the board. An
immigrant from Ireland, he began his career with
the company nearly 50 years ago as a messenger boy
at 10 cents an hour.
Swift has been a leader in providing employe bene-fits,
many of which were established well before in-dustry
generally adopted them. A non-contributory
pension program has been in effect since 1916; sick-ness
and accident benefits since 1907 ; paid vacations
since 1923; employe training programs since 1916.
Group Life Insurance for members of Swift & Com-pany
Employes Benefit Association has been avail-able
since 1926.
Swift & Company's operations are diversified, but
diversification has been largely in further processing
of its products or in fields that naturally ally them-selves
to its business. Over the years the company
has broadened its activities, adding such products
as meats for babies, ice cream, dog foods, baby chicks
and turkey poults, industrial oils, adhesives and agri-cultural
chemical products.
Before the turn of the century, Eastern retail mar-kets
supplied by Swift with fresh meat needed a re-liable
source of poultry. Swift, which had been a
leader in the development of refrigerated warehouses
and refrigerator cars, found that dairy and poultry
products could be handled profitably along with its
meat lines ; for example, these products could occupy
the space on the floor of a refrigerator car under the
hanging sides of meat. Also, the same salesmen
could sell these products.
The company established its first plant food unit
in North Carolina at Wilmington in 1906, and an-other
at Greensboro in 1918. A refinery was built at
Charlotte in 1908, and a dairy and poultry plant
established in the same city in 1946. Sales units are
located at Wilmington, Charlotte. Greensboro, Ashe-ville,
Durham, Fayetteville, Gastonia, Greenville,
Henderson, Raleigh, Rocky Mount, and Winston-
Salem.
Also located in Charlotte is the office of District
Manager Mylin P. Tobin, one of the key executives
responsible for Swift's operations in North Carolina.!
Tobin, a Texan who joined the company as a truck
driver in 1932, was appointed district manager here
in April, 1955.
Swift dc Company sales unit in Rocky Mount
ARMOUR AND COMPANY
Wilson—Winston-Salem, N. C.
Armour and Company, with headquarters in Chi
cago, long established meat packing organization
with operations throughout this and numbers of
other countries, operates two meat processing plants
and 10 other branch plants for storage and distribu-tion
in North Carolina. In addition, Armour and
Company is a splendid customer for North Carolina
livestock growers, maintaining buyers, purchasing
livestock at the different markets in the State.
Winter-spring, 1955 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 21
Meat Processing plant of Armour d- Go. at Wilson
In Winston-Salem and Wilson meat packing plants
are equipped with sausage kitchens, smoke houses
and ham cooking equipment. This permits the com-pany
to prepare sausage suited to local taste prefer-ences
for the North Carolina market. Armour Star
frankfurters are a particular sausage favorite, and
the newest style imparting "open fire flavor" has been
widely accepted in the State. Hams are cooked and
sausage, hams and picnics are smoked at these plants.
The 10 branch plants are located at Asheville, Char-lotte,
Durham, Fayetteville, Gastonia, Greensboro,
Laurinburg, Raleigh, Salisbury and Wilmington.
These units have refrigerated sales coolers for the
display of Armour meat products and have loading
and unloading facilities designed to handle car or
truck loads of products.
In North Carolina Armour has a carefully inte-grated
distribution system developed so the smaller
towns, as well as the larger cities, have access to an
adequate meat supply. Stores and restaurants
throughout the State receive regular deliveries of
meats, thus assuring a variety of fresh, frozen and
cured meats. Some 350 persons are employed in these
units as sales and operating personnel, and last year
their wages and salaries exceeded $1,300,000.
Armour and Company was established in Chicago
in 1867 by Philip D. Armour and it grew with the
nation. Armour headquarters are still in Chicago
but its operations today are world-wide in scope.
The company has some 2,000 products for sale to
industry, agriculture and retail consumers. It pro-duces
all grades, weights and cuts of beef, pork, veal
11 .^ 1 >L-Sausage
factory of Armour d Co. at Wilson
Armour d Co. meat processing plant in Winston-Salem
and lamb ; a complete line of butter, eggs, cheese and
poultry ; hundreds of different smoked, canned and
frozen meats and sausages ; lard, shortening and oils
for every edible use. A long list of non-food prod-ucts
is also made.
President and chairman of the board of Armour
and Company today is F. W. Specht, who began his
career as a student salesman with the company more
than 40 years ago.
The first Armour North Carolina branch house
was opened January 25, 1900, at Charlotte. Besides
this branch, Armour has a district sales headquarters
in Charlotte with offices in the Liberty Life Building.
J. A. Higgins is Charlotte district manager. A
veteran with the Armour organization, Mr. Higgins
started with the company as a bookkeeper in Macon,
Ga., in 1923. He worked in various units in South
Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Chicago and Indianapo-lis
before coming to Charlotte as assistant district
manager in 1950.
Assistant district manager is W. B. Johnson who
began with Armour as a driver in Norton, Va., in
1936. By 1946 he was manager of the branch. Later,
Mr. Johnson worked at Louisville, Ky. ; Fort Worth,
Texas; Boston, Mass., and Hartford, Conn,, before
his appointment at Charlotte in 1954.
The Charlotte district is made up of 21 branch
houses covering North and South Carolina and part
of Virginia. The area demands a good general sup-ply
of beef and pork, but is not a large lamb eating
area. Refinery products, sausage and canned food
items are in very good demand. An interesting point
is the type of beef preferred in this area. Consumers
want cuts from light-weight cattle weighing from
500 to 600 pounds. This means the trade wants car-casses
of leaner, younger cattle than those preferred
in areas like New York or Boston. Armour buyers in
livestock markets are aware of these consumer pref-erences
and the company takes pains to provide the
right kind of beef in each marketing area.
North Carolina has been an important market area
for all Armour food products and it is going to con-tinue
to be a real factor in the meat packing indus-try,
Mr. Higgins said. As the population increases,
Armour will always stand ready to fill the food needs
of this growing State, he added.—Data from Ar-mour's
Public Relations Department.
PAGE 22 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-Spring, 1955
FROSTY MORN MEATS, INC.
Kinston, N. C.
Frosty Morn Meats, Inc., Kinston, was organized,
incorporated and started operations in June, 1950,
as a subsidiary of Valleydale Packers, Inc., Salem,
Va. This federally inspected firm has expanded its
operations and increased its production until its high
quality products are sold over most of North Caro-lina
and Virginia, to parts of South Carolina, and to
some of the larger Metropolitan areas.
The original plant was erected by a group of Kin-ston
citizens, organized as Kinston Industrial Devel-opment
Corp., interested in bringing in new indus-tries
to the Kinston area. It was operated as a
slaughtering and inspection plant for farmers in the
area for a few years. In 1948 it was leased as a
meat-packing plant to Gwaltney Packing Co., which
continued operation for about two years. In 1950
Valleydale Packers, Inc., Salem, Va., leased the plant
for a term of years and organized Frosty Morn
Meats, Inc., and in June of that year began meat-packing
operations.
Frosty Morn Meats and its parent organization
have been interested and active in the promotion and
expansion of beef cattle growing in the several areas
in which it operates. The Kinston location was se-lected
because of the desirable plant already con-structed
and because the area surrounding Kinston,
its soil, climate, rainfall and other conditions are fav-orable
for year-around growing of beef cattle and
hogs. Success of the venture in the five years of
operation has proved the wisdom of its promoters.
The plant is valued at approximate^ $500,000 and
the equipment and rolling stock are worth approxi-mately
$200,000. In 1954, $80,000 was spent in ad-ditional
buildings and equipment. The plant now
contains about 500,000 sq. ft., practically all of which
is in production space. In operation is a two-bed
cattle floor, giving a slaughtering capacity of 25 beef
cattle an hour. Hog slaughtering is conducted on an
endless chain system, with a slaughtering capacity of
120 an hour. This year the company is erecting a
small office and cooler space which will add 30%
to the size of the plant. In addition to complete fed-eral
inspection, the public is invited to inspect the
plant and observe its operations. The firm employs
about 140 workers. In 1953 the payroll was $486,-
000. Last year it had increased 9% to $529,000.
Another evidence of expanding operations is
Slender and young porkers for lean and tender meat heading
for slaughter at Frosty Morn Meats, Kinston
shown in the fact that in 1953 livestock purchases
amounted to $4,340,000. In 1954 this amount had
increased by 12i/>%, reaching $4,887,000 last year.
Hogs and beef cattle are purchased from all over
North Carolina and occasionally the firm goes out-side
for purchases in Virginia and from the Mid-west.
Approximately 45% of the business handled
is in pork products. These include Frosty Morn
smoked hams, sliced bacon, loins, sausage, and all
primal cuts of hogs. Beef products comprise another
40%- of the business, all USDA graded beef and prac-tically
all grown in North Carolina. The remaining
15% of the business is pork and beef combinations,
including wieners, bologna and others.
Frosty Morn meats are distributed throughout
North Carolina, Virginia, and parts of South Caro-lina,
and a sizeable portion is shipped to large Metro-politan
areas. Twelve refrigerated trucks are used
in the distribution of the company's products, and
trucks and trailers are used to haul in the cattle and
hogs purchased in this and other states. Ben Davis,
Jr., has charge of the company's trucking operations.
R. C. Mollett has been manager for Frosty Morn
Meats since July, 1952. He attended school in Chi-cago
and is a graduate of Morningside College in
Sioux City, Iowa. For 28 years he has been in the
meat packing industry, and for 16 years with Ar-mour
and Co., and for eight years with Kingan and
Co., until he joined Frosty Morn Meats as plant man-ager
about three years ago. He has since identified
himself with various civic organizations and is act-ive
in the Chamber of Commerce and other local or-ganizations.
The Newhoff family started its first meat packing
plant in Nashville, Tenn., in the 1860's and has since
developed into one of the leading southern packing
firms. The company now operates five plants, two
in Tennessee, two in Virginia and the Kinston plant.
Lorenz Newhoff, Jr., Salem, Va., is president of the
organization.
Bacon, bologna and hams in cold storage at Frosty Morn
Meats plant in Kinston
JONES SAUSAGE CO.
Raleigh, N. C.
Jones Sausage Co., Jones Sausage Road, near Gar-ner,
and only a few miles from Raleigh, was organ-
WINTER-SPRING, 1955 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY PAGE 23
ized in March. 1947, by four
brothers, Earl T. Jones and
J. G. Jones of Raleigh, and
C. W. Jones and H. R. Jones
(deceased) of Danville, and
their uncle, George D. Rich-ardson
of Raleigh. Starting
in a small plant, this firm
expanded until it now has
gross annual sales of ap-proximately
$3,000,000.
The original Jones Sau-sage
Co. actually had its be-ginning
in Danville, Va., when M. J. Jones and his
four sons began raising hogs and processing them
into sausage at the farm home. In the early 1930's
this company, still in operation, began to process
hogs for growers in the community and it was in
this way that a new industry was formed.
The Jones Sausage Co. partners in 1947 bought a
300-acre tract of land near Garner which contained
a small plant. The company was incorporated in
January, 1948. Officers elected are George D. Rich-ardson,
president (inactive) ; J. G. Jones, vice-presi-i
dent and general manager ; Earl T. Jones, secretary-
! treasurer and business manager. These three are
directors of the corporation and C. W. Jones, Dan-ville,
is a stockholder.
Starting with 15 employees. 11 of whom are still
with the firm, Jones Sausage Co. now employs about
140 workers and has an annual payroll of approxi-mately
$500,000. The small plant has been expanded
until it now contains about 20,000 sq. ft. of produc-tion
space and the 300-acre site and plant and equip-ment
now have a valuation of around $650,000. The
firm now produces annually 7,000,000 lbs. of sausage,
frankfurters and bologna.
Jones sausages are sold practically over the entire
State through refrigerated truck sales, 30 of which
are in operation on regular routes. The area is cov-ered
by 15 salesmen. Hogs are purchased locally to
the extent available from producers in Wake County
and surrounding area, but probably 85% of those
slaughtered are grain fed hogs, shipped in carload
lots from Ohio.
Pork sausage, made from the choicest cuts of pork,
including hams and shoulders, is sold under the
slogan, "The Ham Makes it Different." comprises
about 40% of Jones Sausage business. Frankfurters
make up about half of the business handled, while
bologna and other sausage items each produces about
20% of the firm's business. In producing frankfur-
Refrigerated trucks deliver Jones Sausage over wide area.
ters and bologna which include about 60% beef and
40 % pork, the company consumes approximately 45,-
000 lbs. of beef weekly.
Probably 80% of Jones Sausage products is pack-age
merchandise packed in cellophane paper. All
products are delivered in refrigerated trucks, which
are refrigerated overnight. The regular delivery
trucks hold 8,000 lbs., while larger supplv trucks will
hold from 12,000 to 15,000 lbs.
Peak sales of Jones Sausage products are reached
in October during the time of the State Fair and
other county and sectional fairs. At the State Fair,
hot dog sales exceed 30,000 lbs. Sausages made in
breakfast links and country links, in mild, hot and
extra hot, are sold the year-round, but sausage sales,
along with frankfurters and bologna, increase
sharply during the fair periods in piedmont and east-ern
North Carolina.
Jones Sausage Co. is active with the 4-H organiza-tion
of the State in promoting interest in the raising
of livestock in North Carolina.
George D. Richardson, inactive president of the
company, is a well-known businessman, property-owner
and financier in Raleigh. Earl T. Jones was
educated at Washington and Lee University and at
the University of North Carolina. He is active in
civic affairs and is a member of the Agricultural
Committee of the Raleigh Lions Club. He is also a
member of the board of the Salvation Army and the
Raleigh Y. M. C. A. He is treasurer of the Raleigh
Bridge Association and a Life Master bridge player.
J. G. Jones is also active in civic affairs, including
membership in the Garner Lions Club, and is presi-dent
of the Raleigh Country Club. He is one of the
best left-handed golfers in North Carolina.
Display of sausages, frankfurters and oologna made by
Jones Sausage Co.
NEW BERN PROVISION CO.
New Bern, N. C.
New Bern Provision Co., Abattoir Station, New
Bern, producer of Honeycutt meat products, was or-ganized
in September, 1946, by G. 0. Honeycutt, Sr.,
and G. C. Honeycutt, Jr., as a partnership, to take
over a former small meat packing plant that had
been in operation for several years. In the eight
years of operation, the plant has more than doubled
in size and now has gross annual sales of around
$5,000,000.
This organization took over a plant which had
been operated for 10 or 12 years by C. O. Kersey.
At that time, the plant and equipment were worth
probably $50,000 and the firm employed 25 to 30
workers. The site now contains about 125 acres and
the plant, equipment and transportation units have
PAGE 24 THE E. S. C. QUARTERLY Winter-spring, 1955
a value of $300,000. Several ad-ditions
have been made to the
plant, which now contains about
30,000 sq. ft. of floor space.
New Bern Provision Co. proc-esses
about 30,000 hogs and 9,-
000 head of cattle each year.
Each year it produces about 60,-
000 hams or 720,000 lbs. ; about
60,000 picnic hams (average
weight six pounds), or 360,000
lbs. ; around 60,000 bacon sides
(sliced) or 480,000 lbs.; 2,000,000 lbs. of sausage,
and 1,500,000 lbs. of lard. All cattle slaughtered is
inspected and the grade stamped on each carcass by
a beef grader representing the N. C. Department of
Agriculture.
Most of the cattle and hogs processed by the New
Bern Provision Co. are purchased from a 10-county
area surrounding New Bern with occasional pur-chases
from the outside, some of them from Georgia.
The firm operates three livestock trailers which visit
daily five buying stations within a radius of about
50 miles. Usually the firm pays Chicago prices, but
occasionally slightly lower prices when the market
is glutted. Every day in the week purchases are
made for cash at the plant of quantities ranging from
one to 100 animals on the hoof.
Honeycutt meat products are distributed over a
wide area in eastern North Carolina, from the Albe-marle
Sound to the South Carolina line and westward
as far as Rocky Mount and Wilson. Five outside
salesmen cover this territory. These products in-clude
"Carolina Country Ham," Honeycutt Hickory
Smoked Ham" (tenderized), smoked in hickory saw-dust
from Alabama, "Honeycutt Picnic Hams,"
"Honeycutt Sliced Bacon," "Honeycutt Sausage,"
"Honeycutt Frankfurters" and "Honeycutt Bo-logna."
Also, the firm has a special building for
curing hides and rendering inedible portions of cat-tle
and hogs. Tankage amounting to about 10 tons
a week is turned into chicken, hog and cattle feed,
soap and other products. As an adjunct to the meat
Modern and efficiently equipped plant of Neiv Bern
Provision Co., New Bern
operations, New Bern Provision Co. buys and sells
an average of around 700,000 dozen eggs each year.
Some of these are bought in Chicago and are sold
over the same area covered in the distribution of its
meat products.
Employment at New Bern Provision Co. ranges
from 100 to 135 workers due to the somewhat season-al
nature of the plant's operations. The heavy sea-son
for slaughtering is from August through Decem-ber.
The annual payroll ranges around $230,000.
G. C. Honeycutt, Sr., is a native of Albemarle and
was in the meat market business there with his
father. Later he operated a meat market in Green-ville
and started meat processing there under the
firm name of Greenville Packing Co. Due to sickness
he sold out this business but continued his interest as
a beef cattle farmer and in promoting the improve-ment
of beef cattle in his area.
G. C. Honeycutt, Jr., attended the University of
North Carolina for two years and was a pilot in the
Army Air Corps for five years during World War II.
He was in combat service in the Pacific area for 19
months. After his release from service in February,
1946, he and his father formed a partnership and
began meat packing operations later that year as the
New Bern Provision Co. C. W. McEnally, plant
superintendent for the past three years, was with
Kingan and Co. meat packing plant in Orangeburg,
S. C, for seven years.
Mr. Honeycutt, Sr., is a member of the board of
directors of the N. C. Meat Packers Association and
the firm holds membership in the National Independ-ent
Meat Packers Association, with headquarters in
Washington, D. C.
Thomas E. Green, Department of Agriculture inspector, putting
stamp of approval on beef at Neir Bern Provision Co. plant
as Supt. C. W. McEnally (left) looks on
CURTIS PACKING CO.
Greensboro, N. C.
Curtis Packing Co., Randolph Avenue Extension,
Greensboro, formerly Curtis Brothers, Inc., grew out
of the activities of J. A. Curtis in raising