USEFUL PROJECTS. 
Copy of a Letter from Charles Dundas, 
Esq. to the Chairman of the Com- 
mittee appointed to inquire into the 
high price of Corn. 
Sir, 
members, who 
committee ap- 
AS many of the 
have attended the 
pointed to inquire into the high 
price of corn, may visit their coh- 
stituents during the Christmas re- 
cess, 1 beg leave to call their at- 
tention to a subject which I con- 
ceive does most materially affect 
the sale of wheat, and to propose 
a remedy for some part of the griev- 
ances which are now complained 
of, meaning that our constituents 
may be consulted, during -the ad- 
jourament of parliament, on the 
practicability of adopting weight 
as a regulator of measure, which 
appears to me to be the only 
just criterion of the quality of 
corn. 
By this, jobbing would be anni- 
hilated, and certainty would be 
established in the returns of your 
markets, and in the profits of the 
miller, mealman, and baker. 
this instant, notwithstanding the 
prevailing opinion, that the Win- 
chester bushel is the legal standard, 
yet there does not exist a certain 
measure in the kingdom. © The 
bushel kept in the Exchequer is 
less than eight of the standard 
gallons there, the gallon Jess than 
four standard quarts, and the quart 
is more than two standard pints. 
The bushel of queen Elizabeth, 
1591, contains 2,124 cubical 
inches; the gallon of the same date, 
271 cubical inches, and the pint, 
dated 1602, 34%, cubical inches : 
Bhasstore the inequalities of your 
At. 
~ 
[427 
regulating standard measures are as 
follow : 
Cubical inch. 
13 Wm. III.c. 5. Round 184 
inches. Diameter 8 inches 25150 
The standard bushel in the 
Exchequer 2,124 
Eight of ae standard gallons 2,163. 
Thirty-two of the standard 
quarts 25240 
Sixty-four of the standard 
pints 2,227 
But this inequality of your 
standard measures is not the griev. 
ance of which I particularly com. 
plain; it is the uncertain praétice 
of selling corn in the country 
markets by measures of various. 
sizes, which is an evident. fraud 
on the consumers of bread, and an 
advantage to none but the jobbers 
in corn, who, ‘from praétice, are 
as well acquainted with the size 
of every farmer’s bushel as with 
his face. As the measure varies 
almost every ten miles, the differ. 
ence is a great encouragement to 
corn dealers, and the public are de~ 
ceived by seeing in the Gazette the 
account of the prices of grain in 
different counties,: which cannot 
be accurately collected, whilst the 
measures so locally differ. 
In markets where certainty of 
measures is not stri¢tly attended to, 
allaverages must be false: In many 
where the nine gallon measure is 
customary, I have known measures 
of ten gallons; and, what isa 
shameful fraud. on the consumer, 
gentlemen’s bushels of ten gallons 
and a half,—The dealers, know. 
ing this, give an advanced price 
for the largest measures, conse. 
quently when the average of the 
market is struck, and a return 
4, made 
