44 STATE HOKTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



a barrel, but our brother Comings told us one day that he had found that cement 

 barrels had grown wonderfully less. So in regard to a barrel of land plaster. 

 I remember I had occasion to buy a single barrel of plaster. I drew it home 

 and took it out of my wagon alone and found I could lift it without much trouble, 

 and not being very strong, I thought it must be light weight; so I weighed it 

 and there were just 248 pounds net. I can't tell you how thankful I was for 

 the 'Maw," for if it had not been for the law I don't think that barrel would 

 have held more than a paint keg, just about enough to put on one row of 

 potatoes. 



Now there is said to be a law about how much cider a barrel contains. Well, 

 there are large quantities of cider made at Benton Harbor every year, but it is 

 sold in kegs, and if anybody knows just how much cider there is in one of 

 those kegs he knows more than anybody else knows. 



But we have been told that the great staples, such as meats and flour and 

 whisky, are put up in packages made to conform strictly to the law. So far 

 as whisky is concerned I cannot speak advisedly, never having lifted a half 

 tumblerful to see whether it was full weight or not, and shall have to defer to 

 the superior judgment of the majority. So far as beef and pork are concerned 

 I have to say that if there are always just 200 pounds in a barrel it is because it 

 is convenient that a barrel should hold that or some other known quantity, and 

 I believe that in these articles as well as in flour and whisky and some other 

 things which perhaps might be mentioned, the general conformity to law is 

 only apparent and not real — that it is done for convenience and not in obedi- 

 ence to law ; and again, it should be borne in mind that no fair comparison 

 can be drawn between these staples and fruit, for these among other reasons : 

 First, that single transactions in these commodities are of vastly greater mag- 

 nitude than in fruit; second, that fruit is extremely perishable, while the other 

 articles undergo very little change during a long time except under remarkable 

 and unlooked-for circumstances, and, third, with fruit the seller and buyer are 

 often brought together, while with the others the seller and buyer are very 

 often hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Another thing is to be said : 

 While I do not know but what every barrel of beef or pork is branded in 

 accordance with law, I do know that thousands of bari'els of flour are sold 

 without any brand whatever, either of manufacture or weight. If gentlemen 

 will make inquiry at St. Joe mills they will find this to be true even in law- 

 abiding Michigan. I, myself, have bought flour by the barrel at retail without 

 any brand whatever. So, Mr. President, I have attempted to show that these 

 laws, if any such exist, are inoperative and inadequate. I told you that my 

 second reason for believing the same as a remedy to be wrong, was that it is 

 incapable of completion, for if it was to be completed it would embrace in its 

 provisions every article, or thing, or substance, or privilege, or right, which it 

 is or cau be possible for one person to convey by sale to another person, and I 

 hold that that is practically impossible. We shall not have proceeded many 

 steps on this endless road before we begin to meet with difficulties. A very few 

 every day illustrations will show it. Some of my neighbors are engaged to 

 some extent in raising asparagus to sell. You know how it is prepared for 

 market. The stalks are tied in bunches, what a man can grasp in his 

 hand being a "bunch," and the bunches are sold by the dozen, and sometimes 

 bring a very good price, as high as $2.50 to $3.00 per dozen. Well, moved by 

 the generous impulses of their big hearts they sometimes make the bunches 

 pretty large, and I have heard that the commission men write them that they 



