TRANSPORT QUESTIONS 147 



sending a man to collect the produce, carrying it by rail* 

 delivering it to the London salesmen, and even obtaining 

 from them the amount due to the sender, and remitting it 

 to that person. This arrangement was a most convenient 

 one for the senders, who were mostly producers of the 

 " small " type, and in 1880, when the business was in an 

 especially prosperous condition, the accounts thus collected 

 by the railway company for the senders amounted to over 

 3,000. On the Post Office granting increased facilities to 

 the public for the remittance of small sums, the company 

 found it no longer necessary to act as financial intermediaries 

 for the Aylesbury duck-raisers, who, however, can still 

 obtain from the railway company the hampers in which to 

 send their ducks to market. 



Several companies followed the example set by the Great 

 Eastern in establishing the system of consignment, direct 

 from farmer to consumer, of produce packed in non-returnable 

 wooden boxes, of various sizes, supplied at a low charge 

 by the railway company. Thus under the arrangements 

 adopted by the Great Western Railway Company, in 1904, 

 any farmer who wished to send consignments of produce, 

 up to 24 Ibs., from a station on the Great Western system to 

 a householder in London, could obtain from the company, at 

 prices ranging from twopence to fivepence halfpenny each, 

 wooden boxes holding just such supply of poultry, eggs, 

 butter, cream, fruit, etc., as might be desired ; while the 

 railway company would carry such a box a distance of fifty 

 miles by passenger train, and deliver it, within a certain 

 radius, at the house of the consignee, for an inclusive charge 

 of sixpence. 



Some of the companies including the Great Eastern and 

 the Great Western also incurred considerable expense in 

 compiling and publishing pamphlets giving the names and 

 addresses of farmers and others on their respective systems 

 who were prepared to supply urban householders with regular 

 or occasional boxes of produce ; but the actual results, 

 from a traffic point of view, were disappointing, while the 

 box system itself was adversely criticised by leaders of the 



L 2 



