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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



me, sir, as one who feels some interest in this question, and 

 who earnestly wishes to see the bushel measure superseded by 

 the scale and balance wherever practicable, to suggest that it 

 would be most desirable for maltsters to buy not only their 

 grain by weight, but that the Excise officers, in computing the 

 duty, should be guided by weight alone — or in other words, 

 that the maltster should be charged according to the weight 

 of raw grain which he intended to use, and not upon the 

 gauge of the malt in the process of making. It is needless to 

 dilate on the justness of such an assessment as I here propose, 

 or to dwell upon the advantages which must result from so 

 fair and simple a practice. The maltster would be spared 

 much vexatious and unnecessary injury to his grain ; the Ex- 

 cise officer would be relieved of half his labour and full three- 

 quarters of his vigilance ; and her Majesty's revenue be greatly 

 benefited — first, by reason of the extreme simplicity of such a 

 system ; secondly, by the ease with which fraud could be pre- 

 vented and Excise regulations enforced ; and thirdly, by the 

 extra amount of duty that would accrue to the Government on 

 a large quantity of lighter barley which would under such an 

 arrangement be certainly made into malt, but which under 

 existing statutes could not be so employed, because it would 

 entail only loss upon the manufacturer. I do not advocate 

 the instant abrogation of the law as it now stands with respect 

 to malting, and far less do I desire to abolish the heavy list of 

 penalties, from which the fair trader has nothing to fear, for 

 it is a protection rather than otherwise ; but I think if her Ma- 

 jesty's Board of loland Revenue could be induced to consider 

 the subject, we might in a short time see maltsters paying 

 their duty by the weight of barley to be wetted, and not by 

 the uncertain and clumsy method of the gauge, and still more 

 uncertain calculations of the exciseman, from whose decision 

 there is little or no appeal." If this view of the question is a 

 correct one, its adoption would be a great boon to the 

 growers of second-rate barley, by causing a demand for it, for 

 malting purposes, which does uot at present exist. It has 

 been suggested by the Louth Agricultural Society, and also 

 by others, that this Club should agree upon a petition to the 

 Legislature, and forward copies of it to other agricultural clubs 

 for their adoption and use. I think this a desirable plan. I 

 will not trespass longer upon your patience, further than to 

 again urge the absolute necessity of a general and decided ex- 

 pression of public opinion in favour of the change we are ad- 

 vocating, as the only probable means of its accomplishment. 

 Let me just add, that since I came here this evening I have 

 received a letter from Mr. Bailey Denton, requesting me to 

 call the atteation of the Club to the irregularities of measures 

 which prevail with regard to land. I have also received a com- 

 munication of a similar nature from another gentleman. A 

 land-agent residiug in the neighbourhood of Liverpool says 

 that withiu five miles of his own residence, no less than three 

 kinds of acre measurement, are in common use. First there is 

 the statute acre, of 5^ yards to the rod ; next there is the 

 Cheshire acre, of 7 yards ; lastly there is the Derby acre, of 8 

 yards. Of course, such a state of things is very perplexing, 

 and urgently requires attention. Having made these remarks,' 

 I sit down, thankiug you all for the patience with which you 

 have listened to me (cheers). 



Mr. R. Baker (of Writtle) said it could not be disputed that 

 if one imiform system of weight or measure prevailed it would 

 be much preferable to the variety which now existed through- 

 out the kingdom. The question then was, whether weight or 

 measure was the better of the two. Mr. Wallis had argued 

 that if weight were established it would be a criterion of 

 the value of grain that might be estimated by persons at a 

 distance merely reading the report. He (Mr. Baker) differed 



from that opinion, for this reason, that weight had nothing to 

 do with value; that quality entered more into the computation 

 than either weight or measure, and that whenever a bargain 

 was made the two must always operate upon the mind of the 

 buyer. In Chelmsford market a bushel of wheat was generally 

 estimated to weigh 62 lbs., whether it was red or white wheat, 

 but the value was essentially dependent upon the quality ; 

 and there were many instances where wheat, grown in parti- 

 cular districts of the country, invariably made as much as 6s. 

 per qr., or nearly a shilling a bushel, more than wheat which 

 was grown in other districts. Besides, measure had always 

 been the established mode by which corn had been sold in 

 this kingdom for ages past. The Winchester bushel was for 

 a long time the bushel of the country. That was increased to 

 the imperial bushel, amounting to one thirty-second part more, 

 and that bushel was now the standard measure of the kingdom 

 at large. Upon that measure the tithe commutation, corn rents, 

 and duties of import were based ; and wherever any other mea- 

 sure existed, whether of weight or capacity, or of weight and ca- 

 pacity combined, it was in contravention of the law of the land. 

 The act of parliament directed that the imperial bushel should 

 be the universal measure ; but very unwisely a provision was 

 tacked to one of the clauses, which permitted the continued 

 use of local measures in districts where they had long existed, 

 and exempted them from penalties. This left a loop-hole for 

 employing the measures and weights of various districts, in the 

 same manner as if the act had never been passed ; but it was 

 not to be supposed, therefore, that the Legislature would re- 

 trace its steps and enact that certain weights, or measures and 

 weights combined, should supersede the measure established 

 by law. With regard to the difficulty of delivering by 

 measure, all he (Mr. Baker) could say was that he himself 

 delivered by measure all the year round, and had never had 

 any complaint from the miller; indeed, there was no reason 

 why there should be, where people were accustomed to put up 

 corn. If a person measured a bushel of oats, as Mr. Wallis 

 had stated, upon a shaky floor in a grauary or mill, or did 

 not take due precautions, then it was not improbable that it 

 might make a difference of 31b. in the bushel. But it could 

 not alter the quality whether it was sold by measure or weight. 

 He held, then, that every farmer who went into the market 

 could previously ascertain the weight per bushel of the corn 

 he had to sell. It might be thought that that was an advan- 

 tage which the seller had over the buyer ; it was not so, how- 

 ever. Buyers could compute corn to the greatest nicety, as 

 tbe following anecdote would sufficiently show : A certain 

 miller made a wager that he would compute the weight of a 

 sack of wheat nearer than ten farmers could weigh it, and he 

 won the bet. The fact was, that each farmer weighed it in 

 his own particular way, some with bad scales and others with 

 steelyards, and the results could not be depended upon. The 

 miller's judgment was so good that he computed the weight 

 within 2 lbs., and that was nearer than the farmers could 

 arrive at with their scales and weights. This showed that 

 notwithstanding all the skill that the farmer might possess, 

 the dealer on account of his great practice had an advantage 

 over him in this respect. As represeutiog in that Club the 

 eastern district of this kingdom, where measure of capacity 

 was universally adopted, he felt bouud to state that the opin- 

 ion of the farmers in that district was, that measare was the 

 estitblished principle on which corn should be bought and sold, 

 and that their desire was to continue its use. If the system 

 of weight were adopted, he had no doubt that the farmers of 

 the eastern district would as easily fall in with it, as a farmer 

 of the west could adapt himself to measure ; but it should be 

 recollected that they who did not possess weights would have 



