146 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



co-operative effort which an independent propagandist body 

 like the Agricultural Organisation Society could alone supply. 

 None the less does the sincerity of the efforts made deserve 

 recognition. 



LOWER RATES : INCREASED FACILITIES. 



The fact must be further recognised that the railway 

 companies which were thus urging the importance of co- 

 operation, and pointing to the advantages in transport to 

 be secured thereby, did, also, concede lower rates in certain 

 directions, and offer increased facilities to the producers in 

 others, with a view to rendering to them such assistance as 

 they then considered practicable. 



To meet, for example, a desire which had been expressed 

 for lower rates for fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry, rabbits, 

 butter, eggs and other produce sent by fast merchandise 

 train, new tables conceding such rates were prepared and 

 issued, authority being given to the senders to lump together 

 or aggregate the various kinds of produce under conditions 

 that would allow of such loads being made up as would 

 justify the running of through trucks direct to the towns to 

 be served ; yet one company at least, the Great Western, 

 found that the response of the farmers approached on 

 this subject was not always encouraging, many of them 

 being distinctly averse to any departure from established 

 practices. 



The companies were more successful with the special 

 trains which (in addition to ordinary services) they ran to 

 meet the requirements of seasonal traffic, such as broccoli, 

 new potatoes, fruit, etc. Arrangements were also made by 

 various companies for the supply, in return for moderate 

 charges, of hampers, baskets, and cloths for meat and 

 poultry traffic. 



It might here be mentioned that, long before Lord Win- 

 chilsea came on the scene at all as the self-sacrificing cham- 

 pion of farmers' interests, the London and North Western 

 Company had made special efforts to expand the Aylesbury 

 duck industry, not only supplying cloths and hampers, but 



