356 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



baskets in place of the dry measure which has heretofore been the uni- 

 versal standard for these commodities. A provision of the general law 

 which has been found to be very obnoxious is the provision requiring the 

 collection of fees for services rendered by the sealers of weights and 

 measures. So firmly, however, is the fee system engrafted on the state 

 that cities passing ordinances are not allowed to abolish them, but must 

 always make the collections demanded. We are informed by the state 

 officials that this requirement is the greatest stumbling block in the path 

 of establishing a really efficient inspection service and eliminating faulty 

 weights and measures from the commerce of the state. 



Three other laws were passed at the last session of the legislature: 

 one requires railroads to provide scales for weighing live stock at all sta- 

 tions where as many as 50 carloads of live stock were received for ship- 

 ment during each of the preceding two years ; another requires the net 

 weight to be marked on commercial feeding stuffs; and a third law re- 

 quires similar marking for live stock remedies. 



The law passed in Louisiana provides for the inspection of weights 

 and measures in the city of New Orleans only. The city is divided into 

 two inspection districts for which two inspectors are to be appointed by 

 the governor with the advice and consent of the senate, for a term of 

 four years. Fees are to be collected for testing and sealing apparatus, 

 but the inspectors are placed on a salary basis. Trade weights and meas- 

 ures are to be inspected and sealed annually, and it is made unlawful to 

 use such apparatus without being inspected and sealed. Itinerant 

 peddlers and hawkers using weighing and measuring instruments are 

 required to bring them to the office of the inspector to be adjusted and 

 sealed before using them, and to have the same adjusted and sealed 

 annually. The law includes several provisions contained in the model 

 law recommended by the National Conference on "Weights and Measures. 

 Another act was passed requiring ice wagons to be equipped with weigh- 

 ing devices, making it unlawful to charge and collect for a greater 

 amount of ice than actually delivered to the consumer, under penalty of 

 fine or imprisonment. 



Maine passed one general and two special laws on the subject at the 

 last session of the legislature. The general law is in the nature of 

 amendments to the former statutes of the state, passed principally at the 

 1911 session, and adds a great deal to the strength of these laws. The 

 major portion of the changes are based on sections of the model law 

 recommended by the National Conference on Weights and Measures. 

 A berry box section was included which requires all boxes for berries 

 holding one quart or less to be of the capacities of one quart, one pint 

 or one half pint, standard dry measure. The section specifying the 

 weights per bushel of commodities has been extensively revised. An act 

 relative to sealing milk bottles and jars requires these to be of standard 



