THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



411 



board, that you might judge of the tediousness, complexity, 

 and difficulty of the process ; but I refrain, because I fear the 

 process would prove tedious beyond the power of your patience 

 to endure ; and I am almost sure some of them would prove 

 perplexing and difficult beyond the power of my skill to per- 

 form. 



Fourthly, while the units of length, weight, and capacity 

 are fixed by law, so many local customs prevail as to the multi- 

 pliers and sub-multijliers of the scale, that it is very difficult 

 from a price current list to ascertain the comparative value 

 of the same commodities at various places in our own nation. 

 Suppose, for example, that a farmer has got a quantity of 

 wheat on hand which he is anxious to dispose of to the best 

 advantage, and he looks over the prices current in all the 

 newspapers he can find in the Commercial News-room. In 

 one town it is quoted at so much per cwt. ; in another, at per 

 barrel ; in another, at per quarter ; in another, at per load ; in 

 another, at per bag ; in another, at per weight ; in another at 

 per boll; in another, at per coomb ; in another, at per hobbet ; 

 in another, at per winch ; in another, at per windle ; in another, 

 at per strike ; in another, at per measure ; in another, at per 

 stone ! Thus there are fourteen different denominations to be 

 compared with each other before the farmer can discover what 

 is the average value of his wheat, or what is the most desirable 

 market for the sale or the purchase of it. But all this, though 

 puzzling enough, would be plain sailing, comparatively, if the 

 same name signified the same weight and quantity in all 

 places, or even at the same place ; but it does not. It would 

 be strange indeed if it did, in a system where everything 

 appears to be done that can be done to bewilder and mislead. 

 I have here a table published by the International Association, 

 showing the different weights and measures iu use in different 

 localities in the United Kingdom, and from it I read, confining 

 myself, as before, to the manner of selling wheat. At Hert- 

 ford, it is sold by the load, which is equal to 5 bushels ; at 

 Hitchin, by the load of " about 5 bushels ;" at Bed»'ord, by 

 the load of 3 bushels ; at Dorking, by the load of 5 quarters ; 

 at Bishop's Stortford, by the load of 40 bushels ! Thus there 

 are five distinct nominal values given for the one denomina- 

 tion — the load — • expressed as so many q\iarters or so many 

 bushels. What, then, is the amount of a quarter ? Why, in 

 general, it is equal to S bushels by measure ; but in London 

 it is a weight of 4801b3. In like manner the bushel is in 

 many places not a measure, but a weight ; and in different 

 places it signifies different weights. The following is the value 

 in various towns and places in England : IGSlbs., 73^1bs., 

 621bs., SOlbs., 751bs,, 721b9., COlbs., 701bs., 651ba., GSlbs., 641bs., 

 5 quarters, 144 quarts, and 4881bs. ! In the highly en- 

 lightened and commercial town of Manchester, a bushel of 

 English wheat is fiOlba., but a bushel of American wheat is 

 701bs. ! Here we have the bushel fluctuating from 5 quarters 

 to the eighth part of a quarter, being a variation of 4,000 per 

 cent, on the smaller quantity ; and the quarter itself is an un- 

 settled quantity ; where its value is given in pounds weight, it 

 varies from 601bs to 4881bs. So a bag is, at Bridgenorth, 11 

 scores, whatever may be meant by a score (I suppose it 

 means 20".b3.); in an adjoining town, the bag is 11 scores 

 and 411bs. ; in another place it is 12 scores; in an- 

 other 12 score lOlbs. ; in another, 2 busheh; but 

 which of the many bushels is intended, the return saith 

 not. In like manner, a weight is 14 stone, 36 stone, 40 

 stone. It is useless to follow this line of illustration farther. 

 I may, however, remark that similar variations exist in the 

 system of linen measure, of land measure, of the weights and 

 measures of oats, of barley, of butter, of potatoes, of coals, of 

 wool, and of flax, and, in fact, of almost every atticle that is 



in common use among us. Even in the same town, the same 

 name does not express the same q\iantity. In Belfast, a stone 

 of oats is 141bs. ; a stone of flax is IGjlbs. A stone elsewhere 

 means Bibs., Mlbs., Kilbs , ISlbs., or 241b3., according to cir- 

 cumstances. If I mistake not, flax is sold in Downpatrick by 

 the stone of 241bs. Can any man tell me, without hesitation 

 or circumlocution, what is meant by an acre ? I fancy there 

 are few who know the answer to that simple question. It 

 means seven different quantities of land, varying from the 

 Cornish acre of 4,840 square yards to the Che.'.hire acre of 

 10,240, which is nearly half as large again as our Irish plan- 

 tation acre of 7,840 square yards. In .short, if a comuiittee 

 of the most skilful philosophers had set themselves to the task 

 of devising a system of weights and measures that should most 

 effectually hinder or render as difficult as possible the transac- 

 tion of the common business of commercial and agricultural 

 life, they could scarcely have hit upon any that would have 

 answered the purpose more effectually than that which exists, 

 and is clung to with persevering tenacity in this agricultural, 

 manufacturing, and commercial nation ! I believe it is by far 

 the worst that is to be found in the whole world. And this 

 leads me to the fifth and last objection that I shall urge 

 against our present system : it is not and never can by possi- 

 bility become international ; that is to say, no other country 

 ever has adopted it, or ever will adopt it, uuless its inhabitants 

 be a race of idiots, with whom it will be difficult to carry on 

 trade. By adhering to our present system, or want of system 

 — for there is really nothing systematic iuit— we are isolating 

 ourselves from the general community of trading nations, and 

 rendering as inconvenient and difficult as possible that com- 

 mercial intercourse which is one of the main sources of the 

 greatness of the British empire. 



I apprehend that no human being, at least no rational man, 

 will maintain that the irregularities, inconsistencies, and ab- 

 surdities, a part — but only a part — of which I have detailed, 

 should remain as they are. Common sense cries out against 

 it. They must be put down, and will be. Even the stupid 

 and abortive attempts at a remedy which were before Parlia- 

 ment last session, show that a remedy is demanded by the 

 public voice. But how is it to be applied. Two courses are 

 open to us. We may adopt what is regarded as the most 

 generally accepted part of the existing weights and measures, 

 abolishing by law what are considered mere local deviations or 

 casual irregularities. Or we may discard all concern about the 

 existing system, and adopt by law the best system that can be 

 found or invented. 



In my opinion the latter is the advisable course. Do what 

 we will with the present system, it never can be made a 

 good one. Its origin is purely casual ; its divisions are irre- 

 mediably inconvenient ; its separate parts have no mutual re- 

 lation ; and, tinker it as we may, it never wii! be adopted by 

 any other people. The doing away with their local customs 

 and special anomalies will be as obstinately resisted by the 

 stupid and the ignorant as the abolition of the whole system. 

 You may all remember the outcry that was made a few years 

 ago by persons engaged in the corn trade in tliis town, when 

 our magistrates decided that a hundred-weight of grain meant 

 a hundred-weight, and not a hunJred-weightand four pounds. 

 Had the latter practice been agreeable to law, you may rely 

 upon it the men who raised the outcry would have resisted 

 any alteration of the law with tooth and nail. But the law 

 was against them, so they had to submit ; and now they find, 

 I believe, that they are not poorer by one farthing in conse- 

 quence of the change. And so, everywhere, the change of 

 local customs will give rise to an outcry from the ignorant and 

 prejudiced. If you make any change, you are sure to have an 



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