330 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS? 



further pointed out, in effect, that this minimum of expense 

 cannot be obtained when each producer acts independently 

 of every other producer, and that it can, in fact, only 

 be secured when a considerable body of producers work 

 together in concert. . . . The fundamental principle laid 

 down was that, if the railway companies are to help 

 agriculture, then agriculture should, in its turn, facilitate 

 the operations of the railway companies, and so make 

 reductions of rates much more practicable than they 

 would otherwise be. 



Further conferences followed, and at one of 

 these Lord Claud Hamilton announced that, as 

 an earnest of his company's desire to do what 

 they could to help the agriculturists, farm pro- 

 duce would, from December 1st, 1895, be con- 

 veyed on the Great Eastern Railway, by passen- 

 ger train, from any one of 98 different stations 

 on their system to London and stations in the 

 Great Eastern suburban district at a reduced 

 charge of 4>d, for any weight up to 20 lbs., 

 and Id. for every additional 5 lbs. up to a maxi- 

 mum of 60 lbs., provided that such produce was 

 packed in boxes which the company would pro- 

 vide at little more than cost price. The idea of 

 these boxes was the twofold one of (1) facilitat- 

 ing loading, inasmuch as boxes of certain sizes, 

 with lids nailed down, could be more readily 

 handled and placed on top of one another than 

 a miscellaneous assortment of hampers and 



