THE OATCAKE DEPARTMENT.
During the period under review an extraordinary development of the business of the oatcake department took place, and an aggregate addition of thirty-eight hot-plates for the use of this department alone was installed between March 1894 and July 1897. The committee did their best to push the trade, sending circulars and samples of the cakes to societies in the North of England, with results which were beneficial to the trade of the department. Later, a traveller was employed on salary and commission to push the Federation’s goods amongst English societies. Another branch of the Society’s trade which was making rapid strides every year was that of New Year cakes. In 1896 18,870 five-pound cakes sold at the cake show, and in the following year the number rose to 25,000.