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JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



refusing liability in cases of damage and late delivery where they used to 

 pay claims, and in all cases making it more difficult to get fair treatment 

 and suitable service. As an instance, they used to acknowledge claims 

 for goods when late for a market for which they were sent ; now, since 

 they have combined, they maintain that a delivery at any time of the day 

 is a good one, and even where the goods have been several days late. 

 This, of course is most detrimental to the trade generally, as well as 

 causing heavy losses to individuals. 



Another result of railway combination is that any suggested alteration 

 of conditions has to be laid before the Conference of Railway Managers to be 

 decided. As an instance of that I will give the result of a most vexatious 

 condition attached to the carriage of tomatoes. Everyone knows what a 

 tremendous trade has developed in these, many thousands of tons being 

 grown annually, and because they cannot be successfully grown out of 

 doors the whole trade would have gone to the foreign producers, had not 

 our growers taken them up and grown them under glass. The railways, 

 because they need the protection of glasshouses, put them in Class 4 ; 

 afterwards they made what they considered a great concession and allowed 

 them in Class 2, if the baskets were "lidded," or, in other words, giving 

 them the rate of foreign ones if growers took a lot of unnecessary time 

 and trouble in packing them, their contention being that a wicker lid 

 prevented plundering, and also saved them from damage. Most of 

 the home-grown ones are packed in strikes containing twelve pounds, of 

 the same shape as a sieve, and, being of a uniform size, stand on each 

 other without bruising the fruit, and can be packed in vans more 

 firmly than when "lidded." We have tried all we could to get them to 

 withdraw their unreasonable condition so far as these baskets are con- 

 cerned. I had a personal interview with the managers of the four rail- 

 way companies which carried about ninety per cent, of the whole traffic, 

 and they all agreed that the condition was unnecessary, and promised 

 to do all they could to get it withdrawn. It has been brought up two or 

 three times before the Railway Conference, and I believe the managers I 

 saw did all they could, but the others would not agree, and tomatoes 

 must still stand in Class 4 unless growers and salesmen go to the trouble 

 and expense of " lidding " every basket. This means about double the time 

 in packing, and carriage to be paid on every basket for an unnecessary lid, 

 both when full and empty. The difference is in some cases double. For 

 instance, the rates to Edinburgh are 98s. id. " unlidded," "lidded" 

 51s. 8d. ; to Glasgow, " unlidded " 100s., " lidded " 51s. 8d. — and there are 

 often tons going there daily. The railway managers who are interested 

 want to give way, but their hands are tied. They know that they stifle 

 the trade and are losers of a lot of traffic, as it is not always possible to 

 fulfil this vexatious condition. 



The classification generally of horticultural produce is also unfair to 

 the trade, and after careful and full consideration the Federation have 

 decided to approach Parliament on the subject, especially as our trade, 

 being small and not organised in any way, was not represented when the 

 railway companies got the present rates approved by Parliament, with 

 the result that they obtained power to charge what are now fancy rates, 

 and, from their own point of view, keep them unnecessarily high. It is the 



