406 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ment may serve in some degree as a guide to country gardeners, 

 and enable them to compare the prices of articles in the country 

 with those at Covent Garden, and to judge whether they can pro- 

 fitably contribute to its supply. The mode I adopted to ascertain 

 the capacities of these measures, was that of purchasing a new set of 

 them, of one of the most respectable vendors in the market, and 

 from their dimensionscalculating their capacities, and alsoby actually 

 filling each of them properly heaped. I am aware that baskets 

 formed of osiers, as these measures usually are, cannot be expected 

 to prove very accurate ; and had 1 been in London, I should haveob- 

 tainedan average of nine orten instead of being guidedby a single 

 set. 



I find there are four varieties of Punnets, which still leaves a 

 source of uncertainty, unless in the report of prices the particular 

 variety was indicated. 



From my experiments, the greatest capacity 



of the sieve = 1644? cubic inches. 



Half ditto = 822 



Quarter ditto .... = 362 

 Largest punnet . . = 248 

 Second ditto ... . = 228 



Third ditto = 90 



Least ditto = 60 



But as in practice they may not be filled to the maximum, we 

 may infer, that, relative to a bushel, the proportion will stand as 



follows : — 2 sieves =1 bushel 



4 half ditto =1 peck. 



8 quarter ditto =1 gallon. 



12 large punnets. 



16 second ditto =1 pottle. 



32 third ditto =r 1 quart. 



48 small ditto = 1 pint. 



On looking over the list of articles quoted in the reports, I find 

 several are sold by the bunch. The better way of making known 

 the usual quantity which constitutes a bunch, will be that of giving 

 the average weight of each, or when they are small the weight of 

 a dozen. Information of this specific nature cannot fail of being 

 duly estimated by many of your readers. Yours, &c. B. Bevan. 



The extract given in a late Number, from the Chronicles of 

 Old London Bridge, respecting the improved quality of iron from 

 exposure to rust or oxidation (p. 75), will in some measure confirm 

 an opinion that prevailed in Bedfordshire near fifty years ago. I re- 

 collect the observations of a smith at that period, that nothing 

 made so good a knife as a piece of steel which had been rusty ; 

 and it was generally asserted that a knife which had been long ex- 

 posed to rust, proved always a good cutter, whatever might have 

 been its quality originally. 



I have now in common use a razor, which about forty-five years 

 ago was rejected after many trials, and thrown amongst a heap of 

 old iron as worthless. After lying in this place for some years, and 





