350 



The statistics of labor. — In 1SG9 tlie State of Massachusetts 

 instituted a bureau of statistics, whose oftice it is to collect, assort, 

 systematize, and present, in annual reports to the legislature, statistical 

 details relating to all departments of labor in the commonwealth, 

 especially in its relations to the commercial, industrial, social, educa- 

 tional, and sanitary condition of the laboring classes, and to the per- 

 manent ]>rosperity of the productive industrj- of the commonwealth. 

 General Henry K. Oliver, the chief of this bureau, has presented two 

 reports, in volumes covering more than a thousand octavo pages, and 

 has given a full history of "labor reform" movements and their ante- 

 cedents, " dependencies, and contingencies," not only in our own countrj- 

 but in England. Acting upon this example, the State of ]S^ew Hamp- 

 shire, through its legislature, has recently instructed its governor to 

 appoint a committee of three persons to collect material and present a 

 plan for the organization of a bureau of labor statistics, to be established 

 at the next session of the legislature. The relations of capital to labor 

 are everywhere but imi)erfectl3^ understood, and any light that may be 

 thrown upon them, especially with the view of harmonizing their inter- 

 ests, will be timely and valuable. 



Inland fisheries. — The attorney general for South Carolina, in an 

 ofiicial opinion directed to the acting commissioner of agricultural sta- 

 tistics of that State, declares that the uniform legislation of the State 

 since 1780, has been in favor of protecting the inland fisheries, by 

 making unlawful all obstructions to the free passage of migratory fish 

 from the ocean through the rivers to the creeks and smaller streams. 

 All such obstructions are declared by law public nuisances, which the 

 parties aggrieved may summarily' abate. 



The act of January 19, 1870, provides for a board of fish commis- 

 sioners, to inspect all inland streams, and to report to the legislature 

 any obstructions or impurities permitted to flow into them. It is, fur- 

 ther, their duty to report violations of the fish laws to the solicitors of 

 the various judicial circuit,":, in order that offenders may be prosecuted. 

 At the late session of the legislature, the leading features of former laws 

 were embodied in a new statute forbidding any obstruction, and desig- 

 nating as "close time" in each week from Saturday uight to Monday 

 morning, during which it is unlawfnl to take fish. Effective penalties 

 are prescribed tor violations of the act. 



The commissioner of agricultural statistics, in a note to this Depart- 

 ment, promises a vigorous eitbrt, with the assistance of the law officers, to 

 remove existing illegal obstructions, and to admit the i)assageof migra- 

 tory fishes to the inland streams. 



Unjust dealings with far:\iers. — An Illinois correspondent com- 

 plains of the practices of buyers in his region, who, in their dealings 

 with farmers, contrive to obtain CO pounds of shelled corn to the bushel, 

 or 72 pounds in the ear, dry, selling the same in the Chicago market at 

 the legal rate of 56 pounds of shelled corn to the bushel, erpiivalent to 

 70 pounds of dry ear-corn. Eye is also bought from first hands at 60 

 pounds to the bushel, and put on the market at the legal rate of 56 

 pounds. He urges farmers to make common cause against these prac- 

 tices, and wherever they are persisted in, to club and ship their corn 

 &c., directly to the large markets. A united protest and refusal to sell 

 at unlegalized i-ates will remedy the injustice. 



Sale of Berkshire noas. — A company- of gentlemen residing in 

 Scott County, Kentucky, known as the Scott County Importing Com- 



