160 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



considerable development in the transport of farm and 

 market garden produce by road in place of transport by 

 rail. The new conditions allow of a steady expansion of 

 the suburban area within which such road transport is 

 practicable, while the railway companies, with their heavy 

 outlay on lines, stations and goods depots, and the increase 

 in their wages bills, taxation, and other items falling under 

 the head of working expenses, are heavily handicapped in 

 meeting the competition of a road transport that, among 

 other advantages, has fewer expenses to cover and can 

 convey produce direct from farm or local depot to market. 

 On the other hand it has to be remembered that the possi- 

 bilities of road transport are still limited by distance ; that 

 where agricultural produce is carried in large quantities the 

 locomotive, counting as a single unit, may still be a more 

 economical form of transport than an equivalent number 

 of motor lorries, each counting as a separate unit ; that 

 in proportion as the increasing road traffic takes business 

 from the railways, the latter may seek compensation by 

 encouraging still further their long-distance traffic, with a 

 corresponding effect on the markets, and leading to still 

 greater risks of gluts thereon, unless precautions are taken 

 along the lines of a scientific marketing of agricultural 

 produce operated through the agricultural co-operative 

 societies which the A. O. S. has sought to establish, and that, 

 as the example of Brandsby shows, the setting up of an 

 organised motor service may, for a variety of reasons, be 

 only the precursor of demands for increased rail facilities. 



