The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1875-12-07 00:00:00

and no
day lag
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Alorget Countti

TULSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 187&

NOTES OF THE WEEK.
The discit4pion which took place at the
Dorchester Farmers' Club on Saturday evening
respecting the arrangements of the new cattle
market about to be provided in Dorchester,
served amply to illustrate the difficulty of meet-
ing the conflicting interests of Corn and Horn.
The site was unamimously approved, and its
arrangements are safely confided to the members
of the Town Council, who have manifested a
. .

laudable desire to do the best they-C.Z.Kr-Voth
town and trade by visiting markets of the
highest repute in the country and obtaining the
advice of practical men. But two points remain
—the hours for opening and closing the cattle
market, which is an old question, and the
newer inquiry as to the propriety of having sales
by auction on the fair days. As to the latter
we think very little consideration will lead to
the conclusion that there must be no restriction

in the direction suggested. There can be
question that the convenience and satisfactory
results of auctions have commended them to a

large and increasing body of the agriculturists,
although, it may be, that Frankenstein like,
the system threatens to become the dominant
power, and extinguish the old-fashioned way of
selling and buying. But, if a dozen wish to go
to the fair and take the chance of making their
own bargains, are they to prevent an equal or a
greater number from disposing of their stock by
the public competition they prefer? It would
be an unequal and suicidal policy for the Town
Council to follow. Our fairs of the past year
have shown abundantly that the majority of
farmers prefer to have their sheep sold by
auction rather than to depend on chance
customers, for the auctioneers have disposed of
more than all the rest besides. The reason is
obvious. The auctioneers make it their business
to advertise extensively what they have to sell.
and they also communicate directly with their
large connection of dealers and butchers through-
out the South and West of England whose
requirements they know the stock to be offered
will suit. So doing they bring to the fairs or
market, as the case may be, a new body of
customers, and sales are ensured at the top
prices of the time. It would obviously be both
impolitic and unfair to prevent those who desire
to sell their stock by auction from doing so ;
and even the private sellers profit by the
auctions,for they have the chance of securing the
purchasers from a distance which the public sales
! attract. Thequestion of establishing a hard and
fast line for the opening and closing of the cattle
market must be examined in several aspects.
Various interests have to be considered. There
are the farmers, the corn merchants, the dealers
in stock, the butchers, the auctioneers, and last
but not least the town of Dorchester and its
ratepayers. A spacious Corn Exchange has
been provided at Dorchester by the inhabitants,
with a view to fostering a good weekly corn
market, and making Dorchester the centre
of a large amount of business. The position of
the town and a variety of circumstances favour
the attainment of this object ; but there must
be time for business to be transacted, and
reasonable certainty of finding pople to deal
with. The Corn Exchange is opened from one
to five, and no complaint whatever is made of
these hours. But, say the merchants, the
cattle sales are carried on so late into the
aftentoon in other parts of the town that few
attend the Corn Exchange, and they ought to be
stopped at two o'clock. Regarding the subject
dissinterestedly we cannot help thinking that if
persons wanted to do business in the corn
market they would manage to be there ; and,
that if they have no special call in that direc-
tion neither will the closing of the cattle
market take them there to give orders to the
gentlemen who come from Southampton and
elsewhere. The two trades are widely different;
and, can any one suppose for a moment that if
, the cattle market be closed at two o'clock, the
men who came to buy stock would forthwith
hurry up to the Corn Exchange and lay out
, their money in corn, and manure, and trucks of
coal 1 Certainly not, yet this is the assuinption
on which the claim is based. To our thinking it
, would be as reasonable for the drapers of
1 Dorchester to appeal to the Town Council for a
bye-law to close the grocers shops on Saturday
evenings at five o'clock, to afford time for the
inhabitants to lay out their money on haber-
dashery. of course it would be replittd—but if
a person wants a pound of tea, and finds the
grocers' shops closed, he will not buy a dozen
yards of calico ; and the same principle holds
good in regard to the cattle and corn markets.
To sustain the plea for the earlier closing of the
cattle market, it must be shown that the man
who conies to buy a hundred sheep, will, being
precluded from doing that, spend his money and
carry home instead a hundred sacks of corn. We
believe the demand made is altogether unten-
able, and trust that the Town Council will care-
fully sift the matter before giving heed to it.
Again, while we have every respect for the
frequenters of the Corn Exchange, and desire to
accommodate them as much as possible, we look
with equal favour on those who trade in cattle;
and looking at the two interests from the rate-
payers' point of view, the gentlemen concerned
in the corn trade will excuse us for reminding
them that while they are provided with a hand-
some building in which to transact their business
at a nominal charge, the cattle trade pays to the
town a considerable revenue in the shape of tolls.
On this ground alone the Town Council are
bound to consider very carefully the interests of
those who support the cattle market. Mr. Enser
convincingly indicated the difficulties there are
in the way of an earlier market, and significantly
pointed to other markets in the neighbourhood
where it is not a question of restricting facilities
but only of extending them. A fortnightly
market has been successfully established at
Wimborno by Mr. Ensor, the advertised entries
for which almost always far exceed those of the
stock offered at Dorchester. This surely points
to a cautious policy as the only safe course for
the Town Council. If we want to increase our
market we must not harrass and hamper those
who do business in it. Mr. Ensor showed how
circumstances have combined to force the trade
into the present hours. We all remember how
a few years ago by advertisement and placard he
tried to make the market earlier, but the stock
was not sent in, buyers did not come, and the
farmers naturally enough said—" Don't sell my
stock till the one o'clock train has arrived."
Nothing has happened since that time to warrant
the belief that the sellers of stock have changed
their minds, and until they do, neither Town
Council nor Farmers' Club will make the market
earlier. Of course, if the Council so resolve
they can close the cattle market at two or throe,
but they cannot even then by any bye-law or
ordinance drive the people therefrom to the Corn
Exchange to trade there, and would only suc-
ceed in limiting the business transacted, the tolls
paid would be less in amount, and the market
would gradually decline. Whether it be possible
to change the corn market to the morning, as
Mr. Ensor suggested, we know not, although it
is worthy of consideration • or whether the
Town Council can transfer the corn market to
the new Fair Field as well,we cannot say, though
possibly many of the dealers may gravitate in
that direction; but, while we regret the seem-
ing hopelessness of arranging the markets to
meet the wishes of both corn and cattle trade,
we console ourselves that it is but the imperfec-
tion which attaches to all human institutions.
There is profound wisdom in "Letting well
alone." The cattle market is a rapidly increas-
ing institution under its present arrangements ;
why shonld we endanger its success for the mere
possibility—for it is no more—of improving the
corn market, especially when we have the expe-
rienced opinion of Mr. Ensor, through whom
the market in its present proportions has been
raised, that the alteration proposed will bring it
to ruin? Restrictions are always galling, and
in the matter of an established market should
only be imposed under the most pressing neces-
sity. We believe that a case has not been made
out for the hard and fast lino suggested, and we
hope that the Council will not accede to it, but,
adopting a policy of "masterly inactivity," try
the existing arrangement as to hours, under
which, be it noted, both the markets have
prospered.