Borden agreed to sell a bakery and buy three firms.

The diversified food and chemical company said it will sell its Drake bakery operation to Ralston Purina Co. for an undisclosed amount and said the sale probably will help offset writedowns of assets in its chemical operations. Borden said it expected to gain $100 million in cash after the writedowns and after taxes and said it would use the money to buy Jays Foods Inc., a maker of potato chips and other snacks in Chicago; Doxsee Food Corp. of Baltimore, which makes clam products, and Acme Resins Corp., a specialty chemical business based in Westchester, Ill.