COMBINATION AND RAILWAY RATES 213 



agents in London just as he pleases, without any need 

 to consider what the railway charge would be for a 

 particular lot. Whether he sends a day's supplies all 

 to one agent, or distributes them in varying proportions 

 among half a dozen or a dozen, the cost of transport 

 is just the same when they all form part of a grouped 

 consignment. He can vary the quantities to certain 

 agents from day to day according to the returns he 

 gets ; but, however great the variations, or however 

 small the lots, he will still have his chickens taken 

 from Heathfield and delivered in London at the rate 

 of is. per cwt., which works out, as regards railway 

 rate alone, at just about one halfpenny per bird. 



How the system operates can be further shown by 

 the fact that, on a single night taken for the purposes 

 of illustration, the grouped consignment of one of the 

 two firms operating at Heathfield represented a total 

 weight of 8 tons 6 cwt., and comprised 224 crates 

 addressed to 23 different consignees in London, one 

 of whom, for instance, was to receive 29 crates weigh- 

 ing i ton i cwt. 12 Ibs. collected, probably, from a 

 dozen different fatters. 



Similar arrangements exist at Uckfield, with this 

 difference that there the work of collection is done 

 by a single carrier. 



Obviously, if only the agricultural interests of the 

 country in general would combine on these lines, where 

 they could, in order to secure the full benefit of the 

 low rates already available for large consignments, 

 they would often effect a considerable saving, and make 

 proportionately higher profits on their produce. 



Apart from any question as to what might, or might 

 not, be done in the way of obtaining lower railway 

 rates for agricultural produce by means of organization, 

 it is important to ask whether the rates now generally 



