294 ENGLAND AND WALES 



above (for these might have been surmounted), 

 but because a single establishment would not 

 always be able to absorb the quantities coming 

 to hand. It was thought better for all parties 

 that the farmers should send their produce to 

 Covent Garden market, and that the repre- 

 sentatives of the Lower Seymour Street depot 

 should there purchase such quantities as the 

 establishment thought it could dispose of, the 

 surplus remaining in the wholesale market to 

 be sold there to those who wanted it, instead 

 of being left on the hands of the association. 



Thus the final outcome of a costly experi- 

 ment was to stamp as impracticable a scheme 

 to which Lord Winchilsea, with a most earnest 

 desire to improve the lot of the British farmer, 

 had devoted a vast amount of energy. If he 

 had first seen to the organization of the farmers 

 into registered local co-operative societies, and 

 then, when he had produced the desired results 

 (such as levelling up the quality of produce, 

 meeting market requirements, etc.), had set 

 about forming a central depot in London with 

 which all these local societies could have been 

 affiliated, a very different result would probably 

 have followed. As it was, a well-meant project 

 failed, a substantial sum of money was lost, 

 and a very decided discouragement was given 



