210 TRANSPORT QUESTIONS 



lots each day ; or the many waggon-loads of chilled 

 beef arriving from America via Southampton, could 

 be kept back, if necessary, for the purpose of grouping 

 into large consignments, much better than the new 

 milk, the soft fruit, the green vegetables, the new-laid 

 eggs, or the fresh-killed meat for which the British 

 producer wants the quickest and best service the rail- 

 ways can give him. So his desire both to avoid any 

 possible glut at a great distributing centre and to 

 secure the best possible returns is supplemented by the 

 need of getting his produce to market with the utmost 

 despatch ; and, in these circumstances, it may be 

 confessed that the British farmer cannot be expected 

 to do all that the foreigner does in the way of supplying 

 the railway companies with really big loads and secur- 

 ing the lower scales of rates chargeable thereon. 



But, while all this is perfectly true, the fact remains 

 that the British farmer might still do a great deal more 

 than he does, even within the comparatively restricted 

 range of his national possibilities and the exigencies of 

 his special marketing conditions. The railways have 

 an arrangement under which (i) a group of senders may 

 bulk their lots to a certain town in the name of one 

 consignor, delivery being effected as desired ; or (2) 

 they may all forward to one consignee, the one con- 

 signor settling with the railway company in the former 

 case, and the one consignee in the other. The most 

 favourable rates for a large consignment would thus 

 be secured, and a considerable saving effected in many 

 instances. 



I happened to mention this subject to the chief clerk 

 at a country station one evening, and he at once took 

 down his books, turned to a certain page, and said : 



You see that on this one day in June six senders all forwarded 

 consignments by the same train to the same salesman at Man- 



