AGENCY SCHEMES 21 



the society ; but the society itself accepts no pecuniary 

 responsibility. It is the business of the agent to know 

 something about the customers he recommends, and 

 to guard the farmers, as far as he can, from being 

 victimized by unscrupulous or untrustworthy persons ; 

 but he gives no absolute guarantee, and any bad debts 

 that are made still fall upon the farmer. Nor is the 

 farmer under any obligation to sell through the agent, 

 if he finds he can do better elsewhere. But, in point of 

 fact, the sales through the joint agency in London have 

 amounted to as much as 70,000 in one year, and the 

 bad debts on the business done have not exceeded 30 

 or 40. 



The expectation that the London agency would 

 become self-supporting within three years was duly 

 realized. The London agent receives salary and com- 

 mission, and, after these have been paid, the society 

 (which is a non-registered body, supported by voluntary 

 subscriptions only) had funds enough left to warrant 

 the starting of other agencies elsewhere. Attempts 

 were, therefore, made in this direction at Birmingham 

 and Manchester, combination in the latter city being 

 effected with the Cheshire Milk-Producers' Association, 

 which had been formed in 1898 as a further direct out- 

 come of the example set by the farmers in the Eastern 

 counties. 



But the conditions in Birmingham and Manchester 

 are different from those in London. Whereas in the 

 Metropolis there are middlemen who do an exclusively 

 wholesale trade in milk, in Birmingham and Manchester 

 the wholesale dealers carry on a retail trade as well, 

 so that there the agency scheme presents greater diffi- 

 culties. It is now proposed, therefore, to go a step 

 further and open depots in the two cities in question, 

 supplementing them with horses and carts for the supply 



