156 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



When the individual farmers or small holders are left to 

 their own resources in getting their produce to the railway, 

 it may happen that the cost, even although the station is 

 only a few miles away, will work out at a higher rate per ton 

 than the charges for consignment by rail to destination. 

 For instance, the sums per package paid by a group of small 

 holders at Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, for the transport of 

 their individual consignments of potatoes and vegetables to 

 Oakington station, on the Great Eastern Railway, situate 

 only two miles away, were found to represent a road trans- 

 port rate equal to about 24s. or 25s. per ton ; whereas the 

 same produce was being carried by rail from Oakington to 

 London, a distance of 62 miles, at a rate, for small consign- 

 ments, of 15s. per ton, which would have been reduced to 

 one of ys. id. per ton if the senders had made up consign- 

 ments of 4 tons. 



Should a district be situated at any distance from a 

 railway station with which frequent communication is 

 maintained, great advantage is to be derived from the 

 setting up of a motor wagon service, in combination with 

 a local co-operative society, for the collection and transport 

 of the produce of farmers and small holders within a 

 certain area, thus relieving them of any need for making 

 individual arrangements ; and the advantage is greater still 

 when the same service can be used for bringing from the 

 railway, on the return journey, commodities necessary for 

 use on the farm or holding. 



Light Railways. 



Light railways constitute another phase of the transport 

 problem, and one which, as an alternative either to 

 motor wagons or to the much more expensive type of 

 ordinary railways, is certain to attract increased attention 

 in the near future. 



Road motors, operated in conjunction with an agricultural 

 co-operative society, may, indeed, to a certain extent be 

 regarded as the precursors of light railways inasmuch as 



