202 MARKETING PROBLEMS 



distance beyond the boundaries of such a town as 

 Honiton, and wait about on the main roads to intercept 

 the farmers as they drive in, bargaining with them for 

 their whole stock before they have time to go to the 

 resident traders. 



This practice on the part of the men from London 

 somewhat interferes with the business of the local shop- 

 keepers, who are developing an important ' hamper ' 

 trade with householders in various parts of the country. 

 But the moor farmer himself does not seem to have 

 realized that the local shopkeeper and the London 

 trader are alike exploiting him to their personal advan- 

 tage, and that a little effective combination on the part 

 of himself and his fellow-producers would enable them 

 to organize their marketing on better lines, and obtain 

 better prices for their commodities. They keep to their 

 present system because it is the one followed by their 

 fathers, and the one that they themselves were born 

 into, while the average Devonshire farmer has as great 

 a dread of letting his neighbour know what he is doing, 

 in the way of business, as any agriculturist in the 

 country. Grumble, no doubt, they do at the ' hard 

 times ' and the ' hard life ' and the conditions of British 

 agriculture in general ; but the effort they would require 

 to make in order to change their conditions, and get a 

 fairer share of profits now absorbed by middlemen 

 dealers, would take them too far beyond the range of 

 their habits and ways of thought. It doubtless seems 

 much easier to follow the lines of least resistance, and 

 content themselves with grumbling, while the shrewd 

 traders who live upon them grow rich more or less 

 at their expense. 



The superiority of the Westland system over the 

 Devonshire practice is obvious, though I must admit 

 that an expedient adopted so successfully in Holland 



