68 THE EVESHAM DISTRICT 



* from the grower to the consumer,' but, of course, 

 they can only dispose of a very little of their 

 produce in this way. A small percentage only of 

 the stuff goes to Co vent Garden ; by far the larger 

 quantity is dispatched to Birmingham and other 

 northern towns. 



The Great Western and Midland Railways have 

 special cheap rates for the carriage of fruit and 

 vegetables, and the arrangements they make for the 

 dispatch of these goods have largely contributed to 

 lessen the risk of glut, which would otherwise 

 attend a district where so much is grown. 



Co-operative Experiments. 



An association for the co-operative disposal of 

 fruit and vegetables was formed in 1903 under the 

 name of the Evesham Growers, Ltd., in connection 

 with the Agricultural Organization Society. It did 

 not, however, meet with the united support of the 

 members, and is now turned into a company. The 

 chief reason for its failure as a Co-operative Asso- 

 ciation is assigned to the fact that the members did 

 not send their best stuff, and only supported it in 

 a half-hearted way by sending their surplus. The 

 idea of supplying town salesmen direct with the 

 produce, and so eliminating one middleman, did 

 not seem to work out here for the following reason : 

 that it is not possible from one district only to keep 

 up the continuous supply of all kinds of crops all 

 through the seasons. Birmingham, however, which 

 is the Covent Garden of central England, receives 



