262 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



consumer." The companies have declined, he states, to 

 take fruit at reduced rates in lots of 2 to 3 cwts. 



Mr Rew illustrates the excessive rates imposed on 

 non-competitive traffic. ^ 



" Apples and old potatoes are charged 8s gd in 2-ton 

 lots from Salisbury to London, while from Dinton and 

 Tisbury, only a short distance farther, the rates are 

 1 8s gd for apples and 17s 4d for potatoes per ton, and 

 in 2-ton lots los 6d per ton." 



In the case of another rate quoted by Mr Rew, of 

 17s 4d per ton for new potatoes, in any quantity between 

 April 1st and June 30th, it is clear that the railway 

 company is insisting on having a share in the higher 

 profits of a " season " traffic, in addition to a fair return for 

 the cost of the service. 



Mr Wilson Fox gives several railway accounts 

 of vegetable growers in Lincolnshire. The accounts 

 show that generally about two-thirds of the value are 

 taken up by railway charges and salesman's commission, 

 and that the share absorbed by the railway w^as 15s 5d 

 out of 3 IS 6d, 1 6s out of 40s 6d, 48s id out of 92s. 



The charges for potatoes from Spalding to Leeds in 

 1893 ^re quoted at £^ 17s 8d for a lot of 4 tons 6 cwts., 

 £4. IS I id for 3 tons 3 cwts., and ^^3 i8s 6d for 3 tons 

 2 cwts. At the then prices of potatoes this was an 

 enormous share in the gross value to be taken by the 

 railways. 



The small men in the fen districts of Suffolk, Norfolk 

 vegetable growers, Gloucestershire fruit growers, com- 

 plain that railway rates " swamp their profits " if not 

 cause actual loss. 



In the case of a perishable article such as milk, there 

 are general complaints of the high ratio of the railway 

 charges to the value of the produce carried. 



Mr Stratton says : " It is monstrous that the railway 

 company should take an eighth of the gross value of 

 my milk for carrying it sixty miles." If conveyance 

 by passenger train is alleged as a reason, Mr Stratton 



' Rew, Salisbury Plain, p. 38. 



