220 TRANSPORT QUESTIONS 



get to know to whom they are sending. Baskets or 

 boxes bear certain initials, and the railway people are 

 left to discover alike from these initials (often almost 

 undecipherable) and from the consignment notes sent in 

 where the packages are to go. One station-master in 

 Lincolnshire, commenting on this practice, said to me : 

 4 There are only about two men on the station who can 

 manage the business at all, and the wonder is how even 

 they can do it.' The wonder also, when the staff of a 

 country station may handle 6,826 packages a night 

 under these conditions, is that still more do not go 

 astray than is actually the case causing, it may be, an 

 endless amount of correspondence. The conclusion 

 I myself arrived at in the matter was that by the time 

 the railway company got their rate and, I might add, 

 the railway men their wages they have well earned it ! 



To take still another branch of agricultural industry, 

 there is a little story I should here like to tell, because 

 it illustrates, in itself, a number of interesting points, 

 including (a) changes in agricultural production ; (b) 

 differences in ' loading '; and (c) the railway attitude 

 towards the traders. 



At one time the farmers in the * Cheddar district ' of 

 Somerset used to make a standard Cheddar cheese, 

 of about 50 pounds weight, in such large quantities 

 that 100 tons have been dispatched from Highbridge 

 (Somerset) on a market day to different parts of the 

 country. The railways would not now carry 100 cwts. 

 a day, the reason being that the farmers have taken to 

 making, instead of Cheddar cheese, a variety known as 

 ' Caerphilly,' which goes almost entirely to South 

 Wales, and is in great favour in the colliery districts 

 there. The total quantity of cheese carried by rail 

 is still about the same, and at first sight it would appear 

 to be a mere matter of detail for the railway whether 



