372 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



shrewdness is all-important in each negotiation. In fact, the 

 whole system of selling vegetables by measure instead of weight, 

 places honesty at a discount. 



When beets, carrots and parsnips are sold by the " small mea- 

 sure," there can be no accuracy in getting the exact amount to be 

 paid for. These vegetables, when well grown, are two or three 

 inches in diameter at the large end, gradually tapering to a length 

 of from twelve to eighteen inches; every individual specimen 

 being, from its form, a temptation to those packers whose con- 

 sciences are more elastic than their measures. Barrels of potatoes 

 vary in contents, from two and a quarter or three bushels each. 

 As there is no inducement to pack in larger barrels, small ones 

 are procured. Besides, it is not unusual, upon opening a barriel 

 of potatoes, to find the proof of careless packing in an empty 

 space below the cover. In ordering large quantities of vegetables 

 from a distance, the purchaser is at the mercy of the seller, while, 

 on the contrary, in selling by weight, there would be no room for 

 accident or foul dealing. Orders would be sent for hundred 

 weights or tons, and the form of packages would be a secondary 

 matter. It is no more difficult to sell a barrel of vegetables on a 

 platform scale, than to lift and weigh a bag of grain. There is no 

 reason why vegetables as well as grain should not be sold by 

 weight. Before this law was adopted with the latter, the same 

 difficulty existed that now holds good (or rather bad) with 

 vegetables. 



Adjourned. 



February 26, 1867. 

 Mr. Nathan C. Ely in the chair; Mr. John W. Chambers, Sec'y. 



Improvement in Buggy Springs. 



Mr. D. H. Wood, Sandusky, Cattaraugus county, N. Y., exhibi- 

 ted a model of his carriage spring brace. The object of the brace 

 is to prevent longitudinal rocking action of the body of the car- 

 riage on the springs. 



The chairman said the brace seemed to have some good points. 



Mr. W. S. Carpenter. — The model looks practicable, but we 

 cannot give an opinion without seeing it attached to a carriage. 



