a climate differing materially from like latitudes of the eastern and middle States, 

 ■whicb our isothermal lines, because of their generality, do not designate. What 

 we need much is a line of observers north of Lake Superior, that this wave of 

 cold air may be traced as far north as possible. 



At Green Bay this snow-storm is thus noticed : " On Thursday, the 22d, at 

 noon, the weather being mild and the ground wet, snow commenced to fall, and 

 continued without cessation until after dark, Friday evening. The snow did 

 not gather much upon the ground until nearly night, Thursday; but on Friday 

 night Avas full twelve to fourteen inches deep, damp and heavy." At St. Louis 

 the snow was from five to six inches deep, and extended as far south, it is said, 

 as Memphis. It seems to have had no great eastern extension, and how far 

 west we are unable to say. 



The annual agricultural report. — This report would have been distributed 

 last week, had the binding of the volume not been delayed by the strike of the 

 binders in the government employ. It is presumed that arrangements will soon 

 be made to resume the work on the binding. 



The montldy report for Septemher has received a very general notice, and 

 as favorable as it is general. The purpose of the Department in the collection 

 and publication of the condition and amount of the crops, and the manner in 

 which that purpose has been carried out, has met with such uniform approbation 

 as not only to be gratifying to the Commissioner of Agriculture, but to those 

 correspondents, also, upon whom the Department is dependent for the chief in- 

 formation embodied in the reports. 



English grain measures. — In our reference to the English quarter of grain, 

 in the monthly report for September, page 4, it is stated that the quarter is 

 560 pounds, being a quarter of a ton of 2,240 pounds — equal to eight English 

 bushels of 70 pounds each, or nine and one-third American bushels of 60 pounds 

 each. 



To this statement objections have been made. It is contended that the 

 English imperial bushel is 60 pounds of wheat, and that, therefore, the quarter 

 is the eight bushels of measures of capacity, being 4S0 pounds, and not the 

 quarter of a ton of iceight, 560 pounds. 



The question is not without obscurity, and hence we now briefly give the 

 reasons of our statement. 



Webster thus defines the meaning of the word "quarter :" " 3. In dry meas- 

 ure, the fourth of a ton in weight, or eight bushels of grain, is a quarter of 

 wheat ; also the fourth part of a chaldron of coal." — Hutton. 



He defines the word bushel as a dry measure containing eight gallons. The 

 Winchester bushel, used in England from the time of Henry VII to 1826, con- 

 tains eight gallons of wheat; each gallon eight pounds of wheat, troy weight; 

 the pound, twelve ounces troy; the ounce, twenty sterlings; and the sterling, 

 thirty-two grains of wheat growing in the middle of the ear. The contents are 

 2,150.42 solid inches. 



In 1826 Parliament established the Imperial bushel as the standard of dry 

 measures, and it contains 2,218.192 cubic inches. Thirty-three Winchester 

 bushels are equal to thirty-two Imperial busliels. The act declares that one 

 pound troy weight, containing 5,760 grains, shall be the standard measure of 

 weight, and that 7,000 such grains should be a pound avoirdupois. 



Wilson, in his Rural Encyclopaedia, (English,) says : " One Imperial bushel 

 of fine wheat will weigh sixty-three pounds, but inferior sorts will not exceed 

 fifty-three pounds. The average weight is rated at sixty pounds." 



The English Imperial bushel is 58;^ pounds, computed by the weight of grains, 

 and the Winchester bushel 48 pounds, avoirdupois weight. Thus, eight pounds 

 of wheat make one gallon, and eight gallons a bushel; equal to 64 pounds of 

 12 ounces, making 768 ounces. Divide sixteen into this sum, to reduce it to a 

 bushel avoirdupois weight, gives 48 pounds. The Imperial bushel being 10| 



