THK FARMER'S MAGAZINl-:. 



215 



weight. We rejoice to think that the liars prices arc broiiglit 

 forward as an objection to the change from measure to weight 

 iu the selling of grain, as the whole subject will then be brought 

 before the public, and its weak points exposed. Wc are as 

 desirous of having aa improvement in the method of striking 

 the fiars prices, as we are of being allowed by the law to sell 

 grain by weight. 



It will be asked, How is it practicable to adjust present 

 agreements if the change be effected of selling grain by weight 

 instead of measure? We sugi^est with much diffidence a plan 

 which has occurred to ouraelvea. Let a jury of proprietors, 

 tenants, and others interested, be impanelled, and evidence be 

 led before them of the weight of the grain per bushel or per 

 quarter for a number of years ; let the average of the several 

 weights given in be struck. The average thus obtained will 

 be held to be the average weight of grain grown in the county 

 for which the evidence was led, and will be used for converting 

 the measures of grain mentioned in particular agreements into 

 the relative weights. Thus, supposing that the rent per acre 

 of a farm in a particular county was 4 bushels of oats, 3 of 

 barley, an 1 2 of wheat, and that the average weight per bushel 

 for that county was found to be 42 lb, for oats, 55 for barlej', 

 and 62 lb. for wheat, then the converted rent would be 168 lb. 

 of oats, 165 of barley, and 124 lb. of wheat ; and as the fiars 

 prices would be struck at so much per 100 lb,, it would be 

 easy to reduce these to their money value. 



As it is always safe, at the commencement of any agitation 

 for the change of a system, method, or practice, to bring the 

 difficulties prominently forward tending to prevent such a 

 change, so that each may be met on its own ground, we have 

 been desirous of doing so at present. We will therefore men- 

 tion as another objection to the change from selling by measure 

 to selling by weight, the alteration that will be necessary in 

 the Excise laws in the collection of the malt tax. But if the 

 Legislature consent to make the selling of grain by weight 

 legal, all these difficulties would soon be swept away, aa, in our 

 opinion, they are not so great as at first sight they appear to 

 be. But it is necessary that they should all be mentioned, so 

 as to meet with due consideration before the great change is 

 made. 



The question of selling grain by weight is somewhat com- 

 plicated by not a few insisting that it should be made law 

 that the natural weight per bushel, or any other imperial mea- 

 sure, should always be mentioned in any sales of grain. It 

 does appear strange to us that those who are anxious to abolish 

 the selling by measure, should still insist upon retaining a 

 measure in transactions iu grain. If any such measure be 

 used, the same liabilities to disputes will remain as are com- 

 plained of at present. We have seen, iu the cases adduced in 

 this paper, that no two men will fill a bushel measure, with the 

 same grain, so as to obtain the same weight. Why, then, go 

 to the Legislature and demand that the selling by the quarter 

 should be abolished, and at the same time ask that an aliquot 

 part of it or itself be retained for use, so as to aid them in 

 j udgiug of the quality of the grain ? There ia surely great in- 



consistency here. Though the weight per bushel of grain, or 

 its specific gravity, is mentioned now in transactions, there ia 

 no law compelling the stating of it, but it has sirnply become 

 the practice to do ao, and that only within a few years ; for the 

 time is not long past when all grain was sold by measure, 

 without any reference whatever to weight. We understand 

 that it is not the intention of those who adliere to the resolu- 

 tions passed at the Liverpool meeting to petition in favour of 

 the bushel or any measure being retained to aid the parties 

 buying and selling to judge of the quality of the grain. A 

 good judge of grain does not require to know its specific 

 gravity ; he will tell the value of it by merely handling snd 

 seeing it. A knowledge of the natural weight per bushel 

 weight, or, what is the same thing, the specific gravity, how- 

 ever, will be an aid to those who have not sufficient skill or 

 experience ; and if it is found necessary to continue the prac- 

 tice for such, it may be done without rendering it compulsory 

 by law. There are many conditions often stated in making 

 bargains, which are only binding on the parties immediately 

 interested ; and the specific gravity of grain may, with great 

 propriety, form one of these conditions ; indeed it would le an 

 important eleaient in bargain-making. We are not of the 

 opinion of those who maintain that the weight per bushel of 

 grain is the principal criterion of its value. We will agree 

 with them so far, that it is only one of the standards of judg- 

 ing of the value. Dantzic wheat, for instance, weighing 62 or 

 63 lb. per bushel, will often bring Vs. or Ss, more per quarter 

 than some of our Scotch wheats weighing 65 lb. per bushel. 

 So also wheat grown in East Lothian will command a higher 

 price than wheat grown iu some of the higher districts of Mid- 

 Lothian, though the latter will weigh more per bushel. The 

 practice followed in Edinburgh market is reckoned a model ; 

 we take up, therefore, at random the report of that market of 

 8th December, and we find there that wheat weighing 63f lb, 

 brought 4l3. aud 483,. and weighing 59i| lb. brought 398. 

 and 433. 6J. ; ao barley weighing 55 lb. brought 273. and 

 32s. 6d. ; and oats weighing 41^ lb. brought 223., while that 

 weighing 4]f lb. brought only 21s. 3d, But why should 

 grain be made an exception to the ordinary practice of dealing 

 in the otlier articles of consumption ? There is surely as great 

 difference in the specific gravity of the varieties of coffee aa 

 there is in that of grain ; why then do we not insist upon 

 knowing the specific gravity as well as the weight of coffee 

 when we purchase ? Why should the dealers in grain not be 

 as good judges of the quality by looking at it and handling it, 

 as the dealers iu all other articles ? If it be found just, wise, 

 and expedient to sell these articles by weight, which vary as 

 much in spjcific gravity a-s grain, why should we be enjoined 

 by Act of Parliament to adopt a more uncertain method for 

 the latter? We may be sure that the common sense of the 

 country will not much longer tolerate such an anomaly, and 

 that sooner or later we will have all the grain in the country 

 sold by weight, which is the most natural, as it is the most 

 correct and unvarying, standard of quantity. — Journal of 

 Agriculture. 



ON THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF PHOSPHATES OF LIME. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, 



The Academy has charged M. Boussingault and me with the 

 examination of a note of M. Moride, containing observations, 

 and the results of many experiments, on the phosphates of 

 lime employed as manure, aud particularly on those of the 



compositions called minerals, masses of which, more or less 

 considerable, are found buried in the soil. 



It is not the first time that this important question has 

 called for the investigations of science : a great work, now in 



