F.EPORT OF THE APPLE AND PEAR CONFERENCE. 



91 



There should be. and there must be, a very largely increased 

 demand for the home product, and the home product will be 

 then forthcoming ; and this brings us closer to some of the 

 features we have to face in the question of distribution. 



This opens up as many avenues of thought as the question of 

 production — perhaps more, for in the question of production we 

 deal largely with matters of conjecture, for we can never know 

 the end of an unfollowed course, and if you advocate two methods 

 or fifty you would find followers for each ; but the question of dis- 

 tribution brings us at once face to face with problems of £ s. d., 

 and with the conditions of market operations and regulations. 



I do not intend to take up the time of this meeting by 

 attempting to deal with one of the most damaging conditions 

 which we meet with as a most serious obstruction in the very 

 outset, that, namely, of the railway rates ; nor do I attempt to 

 touch upon that other forcible deterrent — the question of land 

 tenure. Both this and the railway question will, I find, be dealt 

 with in separate papers ; but until some sweeping change is 

 made in the present system of railway charges, it seems that the 

 British fruit-grower will find his industry shackled and weighted 

 to such an extent as to prevent his making a profit at all com- 

 mensurate with that which he is helping to put into the pockets 

 of the railway shareholders. 



Next to the railway question, we require the establishment of 

 some responsible agency or agencies to take up, in combination, 

 the conditions which cannot be successfully fought singlehanded, 

 and this agency should not be merely commercially protective, 

 but also educational. Amongst other matters, it should collect 

 and publish careful data as to districts, climatic influences, 

 meteorological notes, and such other intelligence as would serve 

 to guide. This body would have to be influential and potent, 

 for the power of monopoly is, as matters now stand, almost 

 invariably against the producer and the consumer, and in favour 

 of some intermediate agent, whose name is legion, apparently, 

 and whose presence may be necessary for the discharge of com- 

 mercial enterprises, but who ought to be regarded more in the 

 capacity of a carrier or an agent rather than a trader or mer- 

 chant. 



Next we require the provision of centres of sale. Endless 

 time is lost by the producer in his effort to find a market, and 

 neglect at home is consequently unavoidable. It is essential that 

 persons having produce to sell should be brought into contact with 

 persons requiring to purchase, but we have at present no such 

 facility. Cheshire has its cheese fairs, established by the order 

 of a Council, and the staple product of the county therefore holds 

 its own in spite of foreign competition. Birmingham has its 

 onion fair ; but I do not know of a town in England that has its 

 fruit fair. 



