RAILWAY RATES ON FRUIT 219 



mittee on Fruit Industry, ' I do not think the railway 

 rates are excessive, and I do not think fruit is being 

 spoiled by excessive rates.' ' Taking them through and 

 through,' said Mr. Boscawen, M.P., at a conference on 

 fruit culture held in London in October, 1905, ' and 

 having regard to the nature of the services, the rates 

 are not unduly high. By passenger train fruit sent 

 200 miles works out at three-tenths of a penny per 

 pound. Where plums are sent 200 miles, the rate works 

 out at one-eighth of a penny per pound. Such rates 

 cannot be said to be too high.' 



What should strike an unprejudiced observer most, 

 indeed, is the amount, not of the rates charged in 

 respect to either fruit or vegetables, but of the labour 

 which the handling of the commodities and the working 

 of the traffic involve on a railway company. I have 

 shown the nature of the services rendered in connection 

 with the fruit traffic from Worthing, and I have spoken 

 of the multiplicity of consignments and packages at 

 Evesham and Wisbech, in proportion to the quantities 

 handled. I might, however, here give still another 

 illustration. At Sandy (Bedfordshire) I learned that 

 on an ordinary night a total of 90 tons of vegetables 

 sent away to all parts comprised 172 separate con- 

 signments, averaging loj cwt. per consignment, and 

 representing a total of no fewer than 6,826 packages, 

 or an average of 40 packages per consignment. 



Not only would each package require separate 

 handling, but each would have to be counted into and 

 (at the other end) out of the waggon, so that the railway 

 people could be certain none had gone astray. To 

 make matters worse, market-gardeners are so suspicious 

 of one another that, as a rule (to which, however, there 

 are exceptions), they put no address at all on their 

 consignments, lest a neighbour and competitor should 



