The tire! cheese factory In the Southern
mountains, located at Cove Creek. N.C. in
Haywood County, (photos from U.S. Dept, ot
Agriculture Yearbook ot 1917)
The idea spread and in a few years
there were several more cheese plants
in the western part of the state as well
as in neighboring states.
A sign on one of the first cheese fac¬
tories read:
"Don’t spill the whey. Spilled
whey creates filth, filth breeds
germs, germs cause disease,
disease sometimes results in
death, and death will lead to eter¬
nal hell for the man who takes
more whey than belongs to him.”
Some Pioneer
Cheese Factories
O! The Hills
«I/
cown:
The large scale cheese industry of
North Carolina had its beginnings in
October, 1914. with U.S. Department of
Agriculture support, when North Car¬
olina State College, then called N.C.
A. & T.. hired an extension agent as
a cheesemaker. The name of this
Beaver Dam Cheese Factory. Sweet Water.
N.C (Watauga County)
THE STATE. JANUAPV 1985
KROCHMAL
pioneer is lost in the mists of 70 years
of history.
The assignment was to work in the
western part of the state among the
mountain farmers, as pan of a program
to increase farm incomes. The goals in¬
cluded replacing poor grades of beef
cattle with good dairy cattle, and en¬
couraging the production of quality
cheese to match.
Cheese-making was tradition, and
had been important in the late 1800's,
although the product, skim-milk
cheese, was of poor quality.
Farms then were loo small in the
western part of the state to produce
much cash, and it was hoped this ac¬
tivity would increase income.
Several young men were apprenticed
from several neighborhoods and re¬
ceived training to be able to manage a
local cheese factory, w ith help from the
extension specialist.
The factories were set up as coopera¬
tives, the first at Cove Creek. Watauga
County, where cheese-making began
June, 1915. The building, 14 feet by 16
L-ct. cost $400. The second one. at
Grassy Creek. Ashe County was fin¬
ished six weeks later at a cost of $375.
Creek areas were selected to provide
a source of cold water to cool the milk,
so sweet milk could be hauled to the
cheese factories.
Each co-operative returned almost
$1500 to the members the first season,
an increase of $1200 over the previous
year’s income of less than $300 from
butter sales, from the same quantity of
milk. From $3000 from the two fac¬
tories in 1915, the value of cheese pro¬
duced in 1916 in North Carolina went
to about $30,000 a real economic boost.
The cheesemaking salary and all ex¬
penses came from the income of cheese
sales.
REMEMBER?
THE TIRE COVERS
Does anybody remember when spare
tires sported covers? Anyone who could
get a wide distribution of an advertis¬
ing on a tire cover had coverage such
as is now paid for on TV. radio, bill¬
boards, and newspaper or magazine
ads. Wherever a car with the spare tire
cover roamed, there was the ad for
anybody along the way to sec and read.
Who advertised this way? As I
remember, wc saw every brand of tires,
the brand names of the vehicles, oil
companies, service stations, garages —
all pertaining to automobiles or their
services and repairs. But. others got
into the act too. For instance, in Greens¬
boro I remember that the dry cleaning
and laundry establishments spread their
ads far and wide with advertising tire
covers.
Today about the only vehicles that 1
ever sec that have spare tire racks in
evidence are recreation vehicles and
some of them sport the names of the
vehicle brands and sometimes the
names of the owners of the vehicle. Oc-
(Continued on page 29)
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