STEAM ON COUNTRY ROADS. 231 
taken where the railway chooses, and not where it would 
suit the farmer’s convenience. When at last the farmer’s 
waggon reaches the station he finds no particular trouble 
taken to meet his needs ; his horse and carters are kept 
hours and hours, perhaps far into the night, for a mere 
matter of a ton or two, nor is there any special anxiety 
shown to dcliver his consignment early, though if it 
should not be moved from the companies’ premises de- 
murrage is charged. [In short, the railway companies, 
knowing that the agriculturists until the formation of 
the ‘Farmers’ Alliance’ were incapable of united action, 
have used them much as they liked. As for the rates 
charged, the evidence recently taken, and which is to be 
continued, shows that they are arbitrary and often ex- 
cessive. The accommodation is poor in the extreme, 
the charges high, the speed low, and every condition 
against the farmer. This, in its turn, drives the farmer 
more into the hands of the middleman. The latter 
makes a study of the rail and its awkward ways, and 
manages to get the goods through, of course adding to 
their cost when they reach the public. Without the 
dealer, under present circumstances, the farmer would 
often find it practically impossible to get to markets not 
in his immediate neighbourhood. The rail and its awk- 
ward, inconvenient ways actually shut him off. In 
manufacturing districts the transit of iron and minerals 
and worked-up metal is managed with considerable 
ability. There are appointed to manage the goods traffic 
men who are alert to the conditions of modern require- 
ments and quick to meet them. In agricultural districts 
the question often arises if there be really any respon- 
sible !ocal goods managers at all. It seems to be left to 
men who are little more than labourers, and who cannot 
understand the patent fact that times are different now 
