A DECLINE AND ITS COMPENSATION 359 



the London and North Western Railway Com- 

 pany's traffic receipts for that county : — 



1903. 



Number of flat? carried . \ op A/ ,„ „ CAA 



(poultry and butter) ./ 36 ' 06 ° 6 > 600 



Receipts £2,405 8*. Od. £359 10*. 'Id. 



So far as the railway company are concerned, 

 the milk carried to Aylesbury, Buckingham, 

 Winslow, etc., is an ample equivalent for the loss 

 in regard to poultry and butter. Whether or 

 not the final results are as satisfactory to the 

 local producers is more than I can say ; but in 

 any case this story of " The Bucks Arrange- 

 ment " throws an interesting sidelight on the 

 changing conditions of British agriculture, and 

 the relations thereto of our railways. 



The evidence I have already adduced should 

 be sufficient, I think, to convince the most 

 sceptical of the genuine and practical nature of 

 the interest felt by British railway companies in 

 the increased prosperity of that native agricul- 

 ture from which they have so much to hope in 

 many different ways, apart from the actual 

 amount of produce they convey on their lines. 

 There is only one further aspect of this particular 

 branch of the subject on which I should like to 

 bring conviction to the minds of the British 



