726 Railway Transport of Agricultural Produce, [dec, 



ing, say, one hundredweight, to send to London, and that he 

 elects to send it by passenger train. By the scale for such 

 small parcels it will be seen that the railway company's charge 

 would be at the rate of one half-penny per pound, or 

 4s. 8d. for the one hundredweight parcel ; but if the sender 

 agreed with, say, nine other consignors of one hundred- 

 weight lots to "bulk" all their fruit — that is to say, lump all 

 the small lots together and send them as one ten-hundred- 

 weight consignment, the rates given in the table on page 725 

 would apply. 



Now, Evesham is situated 106 miles distant from London, 

 so that the consignment would be charged at the rate of 2s. 

 per cwt., which means to say that by adopting this method 

 each consignor would save 2s. 8d. on his respective parcel. 



The principle can be applied equally well to consignments 

 sent by goods train. Thus the following are the railway rates 

 for the conveyance of plums from the Vale of Evesham to 

 London : — • 



Small lots. 10 cwt. lots. i ton lots. 2 ton lots. 3 ton lots, 



per ton. per ton. per ton. per ton. per ton. 



£ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 1 

 180 139 121 10 10 0197 



But a rate much higher than any of these may legally be 

 charged under the " small scale for lots under 3 cwt." Here, 

 for instance, are the railway company's charges for the con- 

 veyance of three small lots of plums from Evesham to 

 London : — 



cwts. qrs. lb. s. d. 



0 2 O 13 



1 O O Ill 



I 2 O 28 



Assume, for the purpose of further illustration, that ten 

 Evesham fruit-growers, each having the small quantity of 

 1 cwt. of plums to send to London, agreed to bulk their several 

 lots and forward them as one consignment, the railway com- 

 pany is then bound to calculate the carriage in this way : — 



cwts. qrs. lb. s. d. 



10 o o @ 23s. 9d. per ton ., n n 



From this it will be seen that the cost of conveyance of each 

 lot is just under is. 2jd., as against is. nd. if sent as a single 

 parcel. Obviously, too, the more there are in the combine, 

 the better it will be for each individual, because, as the weight 

 increases, the rate decreases pro rata. 



