570 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



5. That it will greatly strengthen the powers and position of 

 the Board of Agriculture and its president. 



6. (By far the greatest and most far-reaching of the remedies 

 that I have to propose.) That so soon as may be feasible it 

 will establish an agricultural post, to be worked as a branch of 

 the present post office and, as nearly as proves practicable, upon 

 the lines of the existing parcel post. Packages to be carried by 

 this post not to exceed one hundred pounds in weight until the 

 scheme is further developed in a way of which I shall speak 

 presently. All classes of agricultural goods, however, including 

 milk in churns, to be conveyed by the said post at the lowest 

 rates that are found possible without loss to the country 7 . Should 

 the experiment prove both useful and self-supporting, as I am 

 convinced that it would ultimately do, it might in the future be 

 much extended so as to deal with goods in bulk by means of 

 traction-trains which would collect the said goods at local receiv- 

 ing stations and deliver them in the large towns, or at any other 

 receiving station. 



Such traction-trains, I believe, could be worked very eco- 

 nomically. Thus, Mr. B. J. Diplock has invented a new traction 

 engine running on substitutes for ordinary wheels that he calls 

 " pedrails," which, it is said, after allowing for depreciation, 

 repairs, other expenses, etc., will transport goods at 75 per cent 

 less than the rates commonly charged by English railways. For 

 the details of what seems to me, after inspecting the models, 

 to be a very remarkable invention, I must refer the reader to 

 Mr. Diplock's recent book, "A New System of Heavy Goods 

 Transport on Common Roads" (Longmans). Whether or no this 

 scheme will prove a commercial and practical success, of course 

 I cannot say ; but even if it does not, without doubt others will 

 appear. My point is that eventually an agricultural post such as 

 I propose, might by the aid of road traction be so extended as 

 to deal with produce in bulk. 



When we turn to the question of the decrease in the inhab- 

 itants of English rural districts, it is to find ourselves confronted 

 with some startling figures. I read that in 185 1 the agricultural 



