200 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



companies. Far more favourable terms for 

 transit are usually enjoyed so it is alleged 

 by foreigners who send us their produce than 

 by our own farmers at home. But in answer 

 to such complaints the railway companies 

 point out that because the foreigners combine 

 to send us their foodstuffs in vast bulk, charges 

 for conveyance can be granted which are 

 clearly impossible in the case of individual 

 farmers in England, who obstinately hold aloof 

 from combination and the joint dispatch of 

 produce in mass. It is, we are told, out of the 

 question that ten cwts. of produce should be 

 carried at the same rate as that charged for 

 the conveyance of fifty tons. Moreover, 

 even on the showing of the farmers' own 

 friends, it seems clear that in some cases not 

 only the absence of co-operation, but the 

 absence of good management militates against 

 a lower scale of transit charges. Articles 

 like cheese or bacon when sent from Denmark 

 or America are so strongly packed that a 

 truck can be filled with the cases. English 

 goods of this character are sometimes dis- 

 patched to market in such fragile boxes that 

 not more than one or, at most, two layers can 

 be placed on the floor of a truck. 



Closely allied with co-operation is credit. 

 Agriculture in England suffers from the 



