282 IRELAND 



railway companies without recognizing their difficulties. 

 There are stations where the business is so irregular that 

 some days there will be a lot of officials with absolutely 

 nothing to do; but they must be kept on because another 

 day there will be perhaps more than they can get through. 

 What the co-operative movement is going to do in 

 Ireland, among other things, is to organize the traffic 

 for the railways, so that they will know what to expect, 

 and be enabled in various ways to effect economies from 

 which we shall hope to gain advantages for ourselves. 



As illustrating the possibilities in respect to 

 reduced railway rates already open to com- 

 bination, reference may be made to the rates 

 charged for the carriage of artificial manures 

 on the Midland and Great Western of Ireland 

 Railway between Dublin and Langford, a dis- 

 tance of seventy-eight miles. For a single ton 

 the rate is 10s. Id. ; for 4 tons it is 7s. lOd. per 

 ton ; for 6 tons it is 6s. 5d. per ton ; and for 50 

 tons 5s. lOd. per ton, with the further conces- 

 sion of spreading that quantity of consignments 

 over a period of eight days. An individual 

 farmer in Ireland could not be expected to 

 order a 50 - ton lot, so as to secure the 

 lowest of these rates; but the Irish Agricul- 

 tural Wholesale Society, with which he can 

 be connected through his local society, will 

 give out contracts for as many as 2,000 tons 

 at a time. 



