Evening star., 1896-11-02
FROM FIELD TO MOUTH.
An English Effort To Bring Farmers
and Consumers Together.


Winchilsea House, Longacre was in
naugurated yesterday afternoon at the
Central depot of tho British Produce Sup
ply Association by a luncheon given by the
Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham AMI
the directors OF the association. The oh
jcct OF the association is to supply Lon
don, through the central depot, with all
kinds of farm produce direct as possible
from the producer. Meat, poultry, gamo.
butter, eggs, bacon, cheese, choice fruits
ana similar articles will at the outset bs
provided, but The association hopes ulti-
nately to deal In everything of BRUSH aE-
ricultural origin. At first the supplies will
Toe drawn mainly from individuals, but "A
large number of local centcrs are being or
ganizcd in differen; parts Of the country.
so that produce may Toe obtainable in larger
quantities and OF even quality The first
center has been formed in South Lincoln
shire, at Sleaford. 1t is hoped that "A sys-
TEN will be established whereby farmers
will lie helped TO convert their milk into
butter of a uniform quality, slaughter their
OWN beasts, fatten poultry, collect eggs
aEd other produce. and by careful grad
lg, packing, and consigning in large guam
titles, present their produce i'm "a markt able
form AT great saving in railway charges.
The association will conduct both "A whole
sale and retail trade, in the case de
liNering the goods free OF charge. and in
the Otnef acllnS through the agency of
appointed tradesmen in all parts of Lon
don and the suburbs. The premises i'm
LonSacre contain ample accommodation for
retail business and for the storage of meat
and other produce in bulk. Among those
at the luncheon were the Dowager Coun-
tess OF Winchilsea and Lord Kesteven
The Earl of WinchilSea said that. al
though the company might see nothing i'm
the premises but the appointments of an
ordinary shop set up for ordinary trading
purposes, he would ask them to consider
the object for which Winchilsea Hous.
haG been established, and how far-reachln
were the conclusions at which they hoped
10 arrive. In 1S.'2 he was fortunate in per
suading 4 great agricultural congress to
agree with him that tie chief difficulty and
eNll that lay at the root OF the agricul-
tEral question was the want on our parf
of entering into any such combination for
mutual benefit had carried foreign na-
tions so far ahead of us in the cnmpeti-
tion for the English markets When hc
addressed himself TO Ihe question WHY il
was that British produce more and more
lost ground in the home markets he wds
met by the answer that the foreigners who
desired to take possession of those mar
kets knew how TO enter into these combin-
ations, from which the British had hither-
TO held aloof 10 their own detrimsnt. That
was the great secret of failure and
their success. The experiment that the
association was conducting involved moth
ing more nor less than the rehabilitation
of British agriculture on proper modern
commercial lines. and the reCapiurc of She
markets of the country by the people of
the country. No less than fl.vi.Hn.spu
worth of produce was annually imported
from abroad, a great proportion of which
We might, If we would. grow in this coun-
try. and a close examination of that pro-
duce itself and of the conditions under
which Ii WAS grown would convince any
candid jadge that il was not on account
OF any superior excellence, but rather be
cause ii conformed to the ineNorable cor
ditions OF modern trade that these facts
due.
The difficulties beSetting their path were
notorious. The task involved the entire
reconstruction from top to bottom of the
system under which British agricultural
produce was grown and transferred to the
market. They had not only to find an
outlet for the produce. An outlet WAS Of
no use unless their article was IF a gen
u:ne and frst-rate quality. They had
therefore, to persuade the farmers MANY
sense of the word, to change their old
ways and. in certain instances, To COM
line to produce a uniform article of COM
merce. such as butter, which could Ice sold
in large quantities. They had also TO per
suade them to combine fer the purposes of
collection from large and scattered country
areas. They had also TO consider the ullrs-
tion of transport, and here ne was glad to
lie able 10 say that they had achieved some
success, almost equivalent to a reyoluiiou
in the way in which the railway companies
regarded British agricultural produce Their
object was TO cover the country with VOL
Hntary associations of producers on CO.
operative principles. and when they had
dCne that there would be established
throughout the country busineSSliks or
ranization of voluntary associations I'm tho
country districts engaged ia the collection
and improved methods of production of
British produce which would be forwarded
to depots In the great centers of population.