THP: "BOX" SYSTEM 331 



packages ; and (2) that the trouble of returned 

 empties would be got rid of, since the boxes 

 would be so cheap that there would be no need 

 to send them back. 



Later on the company prepared and circulated 

 a " List of Farmers, Market Gardeners, and 

 Others prepared to forward farm and garden 

 produce direct to their consumers," and much 

 advantage has been taken of the opportunities 

 thus offered ; though the system is one that 

 obviously confers a greater benefit on the farmer 

 and the consumer than on the railway company, 

 since, for the latter, it means the increase of that 

 " small parcel " business which involves a maxi- 

 mum of trouble for a very modest amount of 

 profit. The agricultural organizers of to-day 

 are, indeed, themselves opposed to the system, 

 on the ground that it tends to strengthen that 

 element of " individualism " which it is their 

 primary object to get rid of from among the 

 British farmers, in favour of joint action akin to 

 that of their foreign competitors. All this is 

 reasonable enough, and it would be vastly pre- 

 ferable to a railway company to deal witli 

 IJritish produce in bulk rather than in the form 

 of an infinitude of separate small consignments. 

 But at the time in question there was no effec- 

 tive combination on the part of the farmers 



