332 DO THE RAILWAYS HELP THE FARMERS? 



to produce the former result, and the only 

 alternative seemed to the Great Eastern Rail- 

 way directors to be to give such immediate help 

 as could be rendered by the system which they 

 introduced. A little more than a year later 

 there were hopes that the desired organization 

 among the farmers was on the point of being 

 realized by the formation of Lord Winchilsea's 

 British Produce Supply Association ; but how 

 that well-meant attempt failed has already been 

 related. 



Meanwhile the whole subject had attracted 

 much interest throughout the country, and most 

 of the leading railway companies either called 

 conferences of agriculturists resident in the 

 districts served by their lines, or else took such 

 direct action as seemed to them most likely to 

 secure the desired results. I was myself present 

 at two of these further conferences — those ar- 

 ranged by the Great Western and the South 

 Eastern Railway Companies — and I can bear 

 testimony to the great earnestness with which 

 the representatives of the railways not only 

 advanced their own ideas, but welcomed any 

 suggestion offered by the agriculturists which 

 seemed to be at all practicable. 



But the fact that other railway companies may 

 not have called such conferences must not lead 



