MESSRS CROSSE AND BLACKWELL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 221, 17 September 1880, Page 4

MESSRS CROSSE AND BLACKWELL.

[ Victoria Magazine"] . ' Since its very foundation, in the year 1706, the house of Messrs Croese and j Blackwell has been famous for the excellence and purity of the pickles' issued theiefrom. The oniona used are principally grown for the firm at East Ham, Essex, The extent of this I branch of industry alone will be readily conceived, when I state that last year some 20,000 bushels of onions were pickled and put into bottles. Cucumbers, in prodigious quantities, are likewise raised on the same farm, and for like purposes. As, however, the bulbous rootf, together with gbirkicß and cauliflowers, are. not extensively culti.vated in this country, no inconsiderable supply has to be imported from Holland. The most assiduous F.tteution is paid to the process cf pickling, so that (he purity of the vegetables miy not !be deteriorated thereby. The very vinegar employed is manufactured at the firm's brewery, in Brewery, road, N., and is used to some'wheie about the extent of 500 OHO gallons per year. No copper vessels are employed, in ease any injurious taint Bhould result, as in a" 11 likelihood it would. la the preparation of each class of pickles the u too 08 1 care is taken, even to the ex'ent of draining the bottles upon racks ; after which the processes of filling, coiking, and capsuling are duly effected. In the pickling department some sixty thousand bottles are turned out hebdouißdally throughout the year. At one time the public, either from sheer ignorance or crass indifference, patronised pickles which had a bright green hue, the result of having been brought into contact with copper. The pickles issued from the Soho establishment are invariably pale-looking, because their natural color is not artificially heightened to tempt the public eye, or stimulate, to an unhealthy degree, people's palates. The preserves: are of two kinds, embracing fruits and provisions of divers sorts. Each description undergoes particular processes, some of which are of peculiar delicacy. The qu*Dtity of fruit pre-; serves alone prepared yearly reaches above two thousand tons. During i special seasons a number of extra hands 1 are employed in preparing fruit for its . final processes. Then there are de partmentß devoted to such preparations as jams, soupe, essences, .extraclum oarnis, and other medicinal comforts, hams, tongues, poultry, game ; in fine, almost every conceivable article of diet, not omitting plum pudding, Of soups alone, over one million tins are put up annually. These mostly consist of turtle, mock turtle, ox-tail, hare, mulligatawny, venison, Julienne, gravy, ; ! vermicelli, oyster, together with chicken mutton, and oiher brothe. Forty years since, and twenty-six hands sufficed ; now about one thousand two hundred are regularly employed, from 400 to 500 being young women. I was particularly pleased with the appearance of the workpeople, the girls especially, they all seemed cleanly and respectable, while some did not disdain to wear necklets and other trinkets at their work. I dread to contemplate what the neighbourhood of Soho would be,

but for the employment afforded by Messrs-. Crosse and Black we! I. Like all conscientious and high-minded employ era of labor on a huge scale, the firm take a commendable interest in their dependents. They not only oare to get work out of them, for which they liberally pay, but they go a step further, and become interested in their general well-being. Apart from the excellent sanitary arrangements made for their convenience and comfort, all throughout the manifold departments of the manufactory, both a savings bank for the women, and a sick end burial fund for the men, are in operation. With the laudable view of encouraging thrift among the former, ten per cent, is allowed upon the year's savings, A highsr sum than two shillings weekly will not be kept out of •he wages of any person. Every Christmas (he back is cleared. Last year £1100 were deposited, a fact which attests how the bank is appreciate 1. It would be well indeed for the industrial classes were employers of tx'ensive labor to copy bo excellent an example.