COMBINATION AND BETTER PRICES 29 



mained an individual unit. Hence, early in the nineties 

 there was formed an Eastern Counties Dairy Farmers' 

 Society, the larger proportion of whose members con- 

 sisted of Scotsmen ; though by this time the influx of 

 Scots into Essex had been followed by the immigration 

 of a goodly number of English dairy farmers as well. 

 The main object of the society was 'to watch over, 

 protect, and further the interests of the dairy industry 

 and farming generally in the Eastern counties/ other 

 matters which were to come within the scope of 

 operations being ' meetings to discuss points in dairy 

 management ; the framing of equitable Michaelmas 

 contracts ; a standard analysis and measure for milk ; 

 the raising of the price of milk ; the legal defence and 

 protection of its members ; the promotion of dairy 

 factories where desirable ; the improvement in the 

 breeds of dairy cattle ; the mutual insurance of cows ; 

 the purchase of feeding stuffs and manures in quantities 

 and by analysis.' 



Of these various purposes, the one of greatest imme- 

 diate importance was the securing of a better price for 

 the milk. Those particular disadvantages in regard to 

 soil and climate to which I have already alluded make 

 it especially necessary that, on account of the greater 

 cost of production, Essex farmers should obtain a good 

 price for their milk if not a higher price than that 

 paid to the dairy farmers of the Midlands or the 

 Western counties. But the Scottish settlers found 

 that, although they were indeed near to a great 

 market for new milk, that market was practically con- 

 trolled by some half-dozen wholesale men, who bought 

 from the farmers, and sold again to the retail dis- 

 tributors who supplied the public. There were thus 

 two middlemen between the producer and the con- 

 sumer, and the former had practically to take such 



