COMBINATION IN STAFFORDSHIRE 19 



8. By purchasing for members, on favourable terms, feeding- 

 stuffs, manures, implements, and other farm requisites, as may be 

 required. 



9. And generally by promoting the interests of farmers in every 

 way that may from time to time be considered desirable.* 



The association has now 1,200 members, who dispose 

 of 12,500,000 gallons of milk per annum. Their net 

 return on this quantity, after allowing for railway 

 carriage, is 369,000 ; and it is calculated that the 

 financial gain they have secured through combination 

 is from 30,000 to 40,000 per annum, or an average 

 annual gain per member of from 30 to 40. 



One may judge from these figures what the milk 

 industry is worth to the British farmer, and one sees 

 also how its conditions may be further improved. But 

 the particular circumstances under which the Stafford- 

 shire combination was brought about should also be 

 told. 



The chief market for Staffordshire milk is London, 

 and, prior to 1897, the farmers of that county sent their 

 supplies to wholesale dealers in the Metropolis. The 

 farmers in Derbyshire did the same, and the London 

 wholesale dealers got into the way of setting the pro- 

 ducers in the one county against those in the other, in 

 order to reduce the returns made to each, and secure 

 larger profits for themselves. Meanwhile (as I shall show 

 subsequently, in a chapter on * Essex Past and Present ') 

 the dairy farmers of the Eastern counties had formed 

 an association having for one of its objects the creation 



* A further statement issued by the association, showing the 

 advantages of membership, says, among other things : * You will 

 by joining the association encourage combination, without which 

 it is nowadays impossible for any business to be carried on to the 

 best pecuniary advantage. There are very many questions con- 

 nected with agriculture which cannot be properly dealt with except 

 by united action.' 



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