CO-OPERATIVE PURCHASE 185 



different cakes was only arrived at in the most haphazard manner, 

 and there is very little doubt that the farmers, as a whole, were not 

 getting value for their money. Such a system, of course, was all 

 in favour of the vendors of inferior cake, which could be sold at 

 lower prices to cut out the better quality, though the lower price 

 might be very much dearer in reality than the higher price of the 

 better quality. I was very strong on this point, and worked hard 

 to get the necessary information, and impress its importance upon 

 the committee. In the result there is no doubt whatever that one 

 of the greatest benefits the society has conferred on the district has 

 been the general improvement of the quality of cake and other 

 commodities now purchased by those dealing with the society, and 

 even also by many others in the neighbourhood who have profited 

 by the general improvement of the outside market. I consider this 

 of far greater importance than any of the reductions in prices that 

 have occurred. 



By 1904 the dairy, which, as I have said, was started 

 as a stepping-stone, had become the least important 

 phase of the society's work, though the cream chiefly 

 produced in the dairy was still sold in various towns. 

 Besides the dairy the society now had a general store 

 in Brandsby village, a warehouse rented from the 

 North-Eastern Railway at Gilling Station, four miles 

 distant, and a coal-cell at the same station. The 

 warehouse was used for cake and other goods which 

 might be taken on to Brandsby by carts conveying 

 consignments to the railway, and otherwise returning 

 empty. 



In October, 1904, came the arrangement under which 

 the North-Eastern Railway Company provided a motor- 

 waggon service between their Tollerton station and 

 Brandsby, for the conveyance, in one direction, of 

 farmers' requirements from the railway, and, in the other 

 direction, of farmers' produce for consignment by rail. 

 But, as was explained at the time, the railway company 

 could make this arrangement only with an organized 

 body of farmers, and on the association undertaking, in 

 their turn, (i) to erect a depot at Brandsby, (2) to act as 

 agents for the district, and (3) to superintend and work 



