If railways were desirable in 1824 in the interests of agriculture, they must be still more so in 1906, and the reversion now to the canal transport of former days would be a curious commentary on the views entertained at the earlier date. As regards perishables, consigned for sale on markets, growers obviously now want the quickest transport they can secure, and special fruit and vegetable trains are run daily in the summer season for their accommodation. The trader in the North who ordered some strawberries from Kent, and got word that they were being sent on by canal, would probably use language not fit for even a fruit and vegetable market to hear. As for non-perishable commodities, consigned to or by agriculturists, the railway is a much better distributer than the canal, and, unless a particular farm were alongside a canal, the extra cost of cartage therefrom might more than outweigh any saving in freight. If greater facilities than the ordinary railway are needed by agriculturists, they will be met far better by light railways, or by railway road-motors of the kind adopted first by the North-Eastern Railway Company at Brandsby, than by any possible extension of canals. These road-motors, operated between lines of railway and recognised depôts at centres some distance therefrom, are calculated to confer on agriculturists a degree of practical advantage, in the matter of cheaper transport, limited only by the present unfortunate inability of many country roads to bear so heavy a traffic, and the equally unfortunate inability of the local residents to bear the expense of adapting the roads thereto. If, instead of spending a large sum of money on reconstructing canals, the Government devoted some of it to grants to County Councils for the reconstruction of rural highways, they would do far more good for agriculture, at least. As for cheaper rail transport for agricultural commodities in general, I have said so much elsewhere as to how these results can be obtained by means of combination that I need not enlarge on that branch of the subject now, further than to commend it to the attention of the British farmer, to whom combination in its various phases will afford a much more substantial advantage than any possible resort to inland navigation. These are the alternatives I offer to proposals which I feel bound to regard as more or less quixotic, and I leave the reader to decide whether, in view of the actualities of the situation, as set forth in the present volume, they are not much more practical than the schemes of canal reconstruction for which public favour is now being sought. APPENDIX THE DECLINE IN FREIGHT TRAFFIC ON THE MISSISSIPPI