WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 361 



enforce the weights and measures laws. Fees are to be collected for all 

 work done and these fees are to be kept by the officials for their own use, 

 no other compensation for the performance of the duties specified being 

 provided. The only state standards required to be procured and kept 

 are weights of specified sizes, although in a later section " all weights and 

 measures accepted and used by the government of the United States at 

 the present time, except herein provided" are standardized. The only 

 commercial apparatus required to be tested and sealed are scales; 

 weights, measures of capacity and length and measuring apparatus of all 

 kinds being entirely neglected in this connection. All berries sold in 

 boxes must be sold in boxes containing a standard liquid quart or liquid 

 pint, and boxes of all other sizes must be labeled with their net contents. 

 New Mexico has evidently followed the lead of Kansas in this matter, 

 although such a provision is one of the most regrettable ones which could 

 be included in a state law. 



New York continued the good work which it commenced several 

 years ago, and added to its excellent code of laws a very strong coal 

 law, and a law making the possession or use of any false apparatus pre- 

 sumptive evidence of the knowledge of the user of its falsity. A law 

 was recently passed requiring that all meat, meat products and butter 

 shall be sold by weight, and that other commodities shall be sold by 

 weight, standard measure or by numerical count, and that this amount 

 must be marked on a label or tag attached thereto. The law further 

 fixed the sizes of containers for vegetables, produce and fruit and pro- 

 vided that when these were sold in other than standard sizes the amount 

 contained in these packages should be marked or branded conspicu- 

 ously in terms of standard dry measure on the outside of the package. 

 And it is also specified that when commodities are sold in containers 

 of other sizes than those fixed by law the net quantity of the contents 

 of each container, or a statement that the specified weight includes the 

 container, the weight of which shall be plainly and conspicuously 

 marked, branded or otherwise indicated on the outside or top thereof or 

 a tag attached thereto, in terms of weight, measure or numerical count. 

 During the 1913 session another law was passed standardizing the dimen- 

 sions of four- eight- and twenty-pound baskets for use in the sale of 

 grapes and provides that grape baskets of all other sizes must bear a 

 statement of the net quantity of their contents in terms of weight, meas- 

 ure or numerical count. The section of the present code of laws relating 

 to the marking of bales of hay and straw was strengthened by an 

 amendment. 



North Dakota took an important forward step by requiring that 

 lard put up in pails or other containers should not only be marked 

 with the net weight of the contents, but should also be put up in one, 

 three or five-pound net-weight containers or some whole multiple of 



vol. lxxxiv. — 25. 



