It is harder to find any virtue in the behaviour
of the same railway toward the intensive farmers who depend on its punctuality. A dossier has been collected and sent to me by some of the most expert farmers in England, giving in exact detail the delays in conveying perishable cargo. In days of the thin Bradshaw the service was quick and certain. Last season the goods delivered, for example, at Sutton Bridge (where is the biggest Small-Holding Community) frequently took two full days to reach London ; and this meant that the peas and similarly tender cargoes were valueless on arrival. Some of those best informed of the progress of farmers in that rich area fear that such delays will bring about the total surrender of certain crops that should pay best. The fall account of the vexatious delays and the losses is before use and makes a very formidable and convincing dossier.
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