Agricultural Merchants
These concerns provide three basic supplies to farmers; Feed, seed and fertiliser. They also to a greater or lesser extent sell the devices and machinery to be used with the supplies such as fertiliser spreaders and other agricultural consumables such as 'sheep dip'. For more on animal feeds see also 'Lineside Industries - Flour, bread, biscuits, breakfast cereals and animal feed'. Some specialised in a particular aspect of the trade, selling only seeds or only fertilisers, with the associated extras for their range.
Their premises were usually bedecked with advertising signs for their wares, examples of which are available in several model railway accessories ranges, although the agricultural (as opposed to gardening) side is less well served than it might be.
Up to the 1970s the average British farm had a mixture of different areas, often growing crops as well as running a dairy herd and perhaps raising some pigs. Hence you would see advertising for a range of products at agricultural merchants even in areas noted for favouring one or other type of farming.
Fig ___ Advertising signs for sheep dip and animal feed from the 1930s
Seeds were supplied by specialist seed firms such as Twyfords Seeds Ltd in Oxfordshire (who distributed via Bibby's, merged with Cambridge Plant Breeders Limited in 1995 to form CPB Twyford Ltd, the joint company was taken over by Lochow-Petkus GmbH of Germany in 1996), Bartholomews of Chichester established in the later 19th century and Dunns of Long Sutton, (Lincolnshire) established in 1834, or large companies such as Fisons with their seeds division or the Co-Op (through their subsidiary the Agricultural Wholesale Society Ltd., there were also a great number of farmers co-operatives set up throughout the country).
The first scientific plant breeder was Gartons of Warrington, set up in the mid 19th century they became Gartons Ltd in 1898 and thereafter were responsible for producing an astonishing array of new strains of plant, each with desirable attributes. The illustration below, taken from Wikipedia entry on this firm (worth a read) shows the cover of their 1902 catalogue and an advert from the 1930s, included here to show their logo.
Fig ___ Gartons seeds logos
In 1967 Gartons Limited ceased retailing seeds directly to farmers. Instead a new brand was created, Gartons GROplan, and marketed wholesale through agricultural merchants throughout the United Kingdom. Gartons Limited continued as a plant breeding company. Gartons GROplan was sold to Agricultural Holdings Company Limited in 1971. Gartons plc closed down 1983.
One surprise (to me) was Albright and Wilson, the chemical company, they supplied phosphoric acid fertiliser but apparently also had a 'seeds' division (I have found little information on this companies agricultural activities).
Suttons, better known today for selling packets of seeds to keen gardeners, were once a major agricultural seed supplier (founded in 1806 they entered the agricultural market in the 1830s and became a limited company in 1930, today they are part of a multi-national conglomerate Vilmorin, who are the largest packet seed distributors in the world). I think the advert below may (and I stress may) have been used as a stick-on label for BR era vans, but I am not at all sure on that. The logo on the right is their standard logo for the same period.
Fig ___ Sketch showing an advert for Sutton's farm seeds
The 1920 Seeds Act required seed merchants to specify details of varieties on the label and provide information on the quality of seeds, such as percentage purity, percentage germination and presence of injurious weeds (this required the establishment of in-house labs to test the seeds, something Suttons had done in 1840).
Agricultural seeds were supplied in sacks (which had to be closely woven), for some imported varieties they were double-bagged to reduce losses through leakage. The more valuable seed types were shipped in boxes, but I have not yet traced any details on those. In my 1942 copy of Thomas's 'Stowage' there are about sixty types listed, each with their own specific requirements when being transported by sea, and many pages of instructions relating to this cargo. Most seem to have been shipped by sea in '2 bushel bags', which are the equivalent of 16 gallons, roughly 2 cu ft or about 60 litres. From the 1980s they used Intermediate Bulk Containers (generally called 'big bags', large cloth containers designed for mechanical handling. See also Unit Loads - Pallets and IBCs for more on the 'big bags').
One regular seasonal cargo on the railways was the annual crop of Scottish 'seed potatoes', the Scots began growing 'spuds' in the 17th Century and the famine caused by blight that swept across Europe in 1845 and 1846 prompted a search for more resistant strains of the plant. A seed potato industry was started in Scotland where the climate kept the aphid vector of virus disease down to low levels (about 70% of British potato varieties were produced by Scots). In the early 20th Century the first government seed potato certification (guaranteeing the baby potatoes are virus free) was established in Scotland. The potatoes were lifted, bagged and shipped down to England to be planted, usually starting in January and continuing for several months thereafter. Jamieson Brothers Annan have been in this business since the 1890s. The sacks used carried the producers logo on the upper part with the actual variety of potato underneath in large lettering, in the example shown below the type is 'Majestic'.
Fig ___ Sketch showing seed potato sack and Jamieson Bros Annan logo
Cattle feed was sold in two bushel cloth sacks up to World War Two, although paper sacks were appearing in the later 1930s. By the post war era the paper sack was the more common and rapidly replaced the cloth type in the later 1950s. Substantial substantial quantities of cattle feed were delivered by rail (see also 'Lineside Industries - Flour, bread, biscuits, breakfast cereals and animal feed' for illustrations of the sacks, associated logos and advertising signs).
Up to the 1960s most fertiliser was supplied in the standard 'two bushel bag', farmers did not have the mechanical aids for handling things so the bags needed to be man-portable, or at least man-liftable. The most common size of paper bag was the one hundredweight bag until the later 1960s and early 1970s when the half hundredweight or 25Kg bags were introduced. By the later 1960s, with the spread of fertiliser spreading equipment some farmers were taking supplies delivered in bulk from the merchant's stores.
Agricultural merchants supplied their local area, mainly by road (either the farmer would collect or the merchant would deliver), however up to the 1950s a railway siding was a distinct advantage. Many (probably most) agricultural merchants maintained premises at the local station goods yard, typically a large lockable shed, however rail traffic would generally be confined to vans and sheeted open wagons of bagged products.
One aspect of interest was the use of hired-in PO coal wagons, these would be sheeted for the bagged traffic. They were seen delivering fertiliser during the summer months when demand for coal was low and before the autumn demand for fertiliser picked up. This allows you to use 'out of area' PO coal wagons picked up cheaply second hand.
These merchants often maintained a small warehouse at the local railway yard. The Ratio OO scale concrete 'provender store' was a standard building produced in the south of the country but used (I believe) nationally by various merchants operating from railway goods yards, the Bachmann version is a slightly larger type using the same basic components. The Bachmann OO corrugated iron goods store is suitable for pre-war layouts. All of these can be drawn on for inspiration in creating your own home grown building if you are unable to find one to suit your needs supplied by the trade.
The sketch below is based on a photograph of an actual stores, the prototype was actually operated by an agricultural merchant contracted to Bibby's, an animal feed manufacturer, and has surprisingly little by way of advertising on the walls (the building may have been new when photographed in the 1920s). As noted above an agricultural merchant would normally add some enamelled signs to the walls advertising his range of goods. The prototype had corrugated iron walls and roof. The side doors slide sideways inside the walls and the two sides of the building are similar, the sketch shows the road side.
Fig ___ Animal feed merchant's stores in a goods yard
On the sketch I have suggested adding a narrow platform on the rail side of the building (about three feet wide), this would be standard on a GWR or SR line as these companies used hinged door vans. The LMS and LNER preferred sliding door vans and the platforms were often not added to buildings on those lines. If a GWR or SR van arrived it would be moved clear of the building by men or horses, the doors opened and secured and the van moved back into position. This saves you nearly a half inch of depth, which can be significant in a tight space.
For a larger premises with its own siding the well known BILTEEZI card building kit 'SCATS warehouse' would serve. Scats, an agricultural merchants, owned this two storey brick built building at Alresford LSWR on the Mid Hants Railway. SCATS are still trading today supplying animal feeds, grain, AgriSeeds and 'groundcare machinery' (in 2002 Scats Countrystores were bought by Mole Valley Farmers, a farmers co-operative dating back to the mid 1960s). The 2mm scale Bilteezi model has no back and ends up looking rather 'flat', but at the price you can buy two to produce a more 3-D building by recessing the doors and windows.
Bear in mind that not all buildings were square, some were tapered toward one end, which can save you some space by moving the building closer to the point serving the siding. In country areas land was not too expensive so a long siding serving a standard rectangular building would be the norm, but where the space was constrained (perhaps by a river) an oddly shaped building might be provided. In towns the sides of the building would be straight, making the maximum use of the space, but in a more bucolic setting they might opt for a building with a narrow bit and a wide bit. The latter is easier to build as most structures in the country would have a pitched roof (in a town setting an oddly shaped industrial building might well be flat roofed, see also Lineside Industries - Prototype industrial buildings for an example of a warehouse).
The example shown below has a corrugated iron lorry loading bay for bulk deliveries, this came in during the 1960s I believe. The side and end loading bank allows deliveries of agricultural machinery.
Fig ___ Agricultural merchant's depot
The agricultural merchant might also offer a sales channel to the farmer, undertaking to sell the farm's produce on his behalf. The goods could then be loaded at the merchant's siding rather than at the railway operated section of the yard. Most of this outgoing traffic would be bagged and I remember being told by an old farmer about the 'standard three bushel sack' being used for grain. The three bushel 'sack' or 'bag' held 24 gallons or about four cubic feet (110 litres). Filled with wheat, corn or peas that would weigh in at something over 190 lbs or about 80 Kgs and barley, rye or cottonseed would weigh 25 percent more, these were heavy sacks. Technically the legal definition of a 'sack' is a three bushel bag, however I have come across numerous references to grain being shipped in the four bushel bag (four bushels being known as a 'coomb' when talking of corn), which must have been very heavy indeed (one reason old farmers always had a stick was the damage they had done to their back handling these large and heavy sacks).
In the BR era domestic grain was also shipped in bulk, using distinctive grain hopper wagons, although I believe the loading apparatus was usually owned by a farmers co-operative and was generally located on its own siding (often positioned between two sidings in the pictures I have seen).
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