THE MIDDLEMAN IN AGRICULTURE. 91 



Practically all the beef and mutton grown in Britain and 

 sent to London passes through Islington or the Central 

 Meat Market. The figures quoted above show the 

 extent of the carcass trade and the comparatively small 

 proportion of the town-killed meat. The question arises 

 why animals are sent to London for slaughter at all. 

 Four-fifths of the butchers in the metropolis are said to 

 buy dead meat only ; why should not the other fifth do 

 the same ? There is no doubt an enormous waste 

 annually entailed by the conveyance of live cattle to 

 market. A finished beast is the worst possible traveller, 

 and is bound to deteriorate every hour he is on the railway. 

 The improved methods of carrying meat have really 

 made the old system obsolete, a fact which our foreign 

 competitors in many cases recognise. It would be 

 absurd to suggest that the practice — which has been 

 tried in a few instances in the north — of slaughtering on 

 the farm can be generally adopted, but it would certainly 

 seem that farmers might by some means of combination 

 slaughter their beasts nearer home, and sell them in 

 carcass instead of "on the hoof." They would thus 

 avoid the deterioration and waste necessarily incidental 

 to a railway journey, they would know exactly how much 

 dressed meat they had to sell, and the " fifth quarter " 

 would more than pay the cost of slaughtering. 



Farmers are buyers as well as sellers, and they are 

 interested therefore in reducing, if possible, the middle 

 profits on farm requisites, such as manures and feeding 

 stuffs. A committee of the Central Chamber of Agri- 

 culture has just presented a report on the subject of 

 Co-operation for Purchase, which is based on a consider- 

 able amount of evidence collected by them. They state 

 that there are in the kingdom about thirty co-operative 

 societies for supplying farm requisites. Some of them, 

 however, like the well-known Lincolnshire Association, 

 deal only in one commodity, while at least half do not 

 deal in more than two or three articles. The report 



