At the quarterly meeting which was held in December, the first mention was made of a subject which was to engage the attention of many quarterly meetings before being finally disposed of. This was a suggestion by Johnstone Society that the Baking Society should consider seriously the possibility of opening branch bakeries as their business extended. Meantime, Vale of Leven Society had approached the Baking Society with the view of having bread delivered to them by rail, and a van had been fitted up for this purpose, so the Board came to the decision to hold over the consideration of branch bakeries until they saw what the results of conveyance by rail were going to be. The delivery difficulty was getting more acute every week at this time, and it was found that two societies which had ceased to take their bread from the Society, and whose action had been described by the committee as “utterly subversive of true Co-operation and detrimental to the interests of the Baking Society,” had done so because of the irregularity of delivery, and declared themselves “willing to begin again as soon as they could see an assurance of a regular and steady supply.” In order to suit the convenience of Glasgow societies an arrangement came into force in the beginning of 1872 whereby the Baking Society undertook to deliver bread at the houses of the members of these societies for an additional charge of 9d. per hour for the time spent in this work. About the same time the question of baking biscuits on days when the general work was easy was considered, and this new branch of business was finally entered on. The turnover for the third year was larger than that of the first two combined, being 6,341 sacks; an average of 122 per week. Owing to the rise in the price of flour, however, and in some degree also to the heavy costs of delivery, the surpluses on the year’s trading showed considerable fluctuations; for while the dividend earned during the first quarter was one shilling, those for the succeeding quarters were fivepence, sixpence, and threepence respectively. The Society was now quite a large property owner, the value of the buildings as shown in the balance-sheet being £2,421, while the value of live and other stock was £870. Several new vans of a four-wheeled design had been built during the year in order to facilitate delivery, and several new horses had also been purchased. The cash value of the sales for the year was over £16,000, and the combined share and loan capital was £1,411. Reserves had been increased to £54, and buildings and stocks written down by £368 during the year.