CO-OPERATION FOR SALE OF FARM PRODUCE. 127 



and other articles direct to the consumer. There is, it 

 is true, an absence of the large wholesale buyer of butter, 

 who is so much in evidence at many markets in 

 Normandy, but with this exception the system is the 

 same. I understand that in some districts in the North 

 a system of buying up butter by large wholesale houses 

 at the local markets prevails. 



But, admitting that the middleman cannot be entirely 

 abolished where he exists, and that to a certain extent 

 he does not now exist, there still remains ample reason to 

 consider whether no improvement is necessary, and if 

 necessary, practicable. I venture to think that the 

 problem is at once more pressing and more hopeful than 

 it was ten years ago. It is more pressing because the 

 returns from farming were never less able than they are 

 now to admit of unnecessary outgoings, and further, 

 because the increased organisation of foreign competition 

 renders it less easy than ever for the farmer as an 

 individual to hold his own in the great markets. I 

 think, too, that it is more hopeful — first, because of what 

 seems to me an awakening sense on the part of the public 

 generally of the necessity of encouraging home produce ; 

 secondly, because of a somewhat greater readiness on 

 the part of farmers to work together ; and thirdly, 

 because the railway companies appear at last willing to 

 give English producers the same facilities, under the 

 same conditions, as they have so long granted only to 

 foreigners. 



It is common knowledge that Lord Winchilsea has, 

 with characteristic pluck, attempted to grapple with this 

 most difficult question. It does not come within my 

 province to anticipate the details of any scheme which 

 he has prepared. But I may be allowed to suggest one 

 or two points which are essential to a successful experiment 

 in this direction. It should, while starting experimentally 

 and to some extent tentatively, be sufficiently compre- 

 hensive in scope to cover in due course the whole field 



