with her pennies in her hand to get the early morning egg fresh for breakfast. There is also the fresh fruit and vegetables which in future days, perhaps, a fatherly or grandmotherly municipality will distribute in their cars to you.
The use of motors for market and farm work is yet in its infancy, but I can see no reason why the distribution of perishable goods from a moving centre should not be one of the improvements of coming years. Take, again, the instance of thousands of acres of land in this country which are from six to ten miles from a railway station, with perhaps a rail journey of another ten to the county or market town. By a little arrangement and organisation tenants farming this land could, three days a week, send their produce to market, and, moreover, if it is not sold at satisfactory prices, the articles could come back at no greater expense than that which it would cost to run the car, which in any case would have to return, and is not likely always to have a full load. The grip of the provincial salesman on the farmer lies in the fact that if the latter takes his produce to market he must sell it before the end of the day, for to bring it back by rail, and to have a cart to meet it at the other end, would be financially suicidal. The farmer, therefore, is always at a disadvantage, and the middleman takes a bigger proportion out of the agriculturist than perhaps in any other trade.
For estate work, where there is a staff of builders or carpenters, a motor-car will prove a great saving. When once the capital outlay is faced, scattered cottages and farmhouses can be more easily and economically examined and attended to, and perhaps repaired even in the hours between sunrise and sunset. If your carpenter or bricklayer has to walk five miles to his work, in the winter, he will certainly not begin much before nine o'clock, and he will walk back in your time and not in his. Small blame to the man for that. The absolutely efficient hours of labour are thus reduced by nearly thirty-three per cent, and the work will cost you correspondingly more. In the case of the breaking down of a bridge,
