66 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



i 



Corn offals and feeding meals . . 15,500,000 



Oilcakes and other feeding stuffs . . "7,500,000 



Total 23,000,000 



These figures sufficiently confirm what has already been 

 said as to the results of advanced scientific methods of 

 agriculture in leading to the creation of great industrial 

 and commercial interests whose main concern in the agricul- 

 ture on which they have flourished has naturally been the 

 particular extent to which the supply of its needs would 

 tend to their own benefit. 



Taking further into account what British farmers must 

 pay in the course of a year for seeds, implements, machinery 

 and other necessaries, it will be found obviously to their 

 advantage, as an ordinary business proposition, to resort to 

 joint action in order (1) to buy wholesale instead of retail ; 



(2) to obtain effective guarantees of good quality ; and 



(3) to protect their own interests generally against powerful 

 combinations on the part of manufacturers or middlemen 

 traders. 



All these things have a direct bearing on cost of production, 

 and the same consideration is involved in the setting up of 

 co-operative dairies, cheese factories, etc. 



Transport. 



In Great Britain, where agricultural production in general 

 is on a smaller scale, and much of the home produce goes 

 direct from the place of origin to the place of consumption, 

 there is not the same opportunity for making up train-load 

 lots as in countries which not only produce on a very large 

 scale but regularly make up such lots for shipment to this 

 country ; though it must be remembered that, while the 

 foreign produce received here in these large quantities thus 

 secures the lowest rates for transport, the material considera- 

 tion is, not the amount they have paid for the journey from 

 the port of arrival to (say) London (which amount forms part 

 only of a through rate, and is influenced by bulk of consign- 

 ment, packing, etc.), but the sum total of the charges for 



