328 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



integrity would then be better appreciated ; economy in the 

 modes of living would prevail much more ; and industry and 

 frugality would be greatly stimulated. 



s 



3. MODES OF SELLING. The sale by sample seems, on many 

 accounts, more eligible than by bringing the whole quantity at 

 once to the market. The sample, in such cases, is divided 

 between buyer and seller, for there should be a guarantee of 

 fair dealing on both sides, as, in case of a fall in price, the 

 purchaser might substitute a better sample than that which he 

 had received, and in this way evade his engagement. In all 

 eases, the selling by sample is liable, however, to objections of 

 this kind, and more especially as the seller himself is likely to 

 separate from a small sample what might injure its appearance ; 

 and a small sample is always likely to be cleaner, and appear 

 better, than a large quantity. One cannot say of wheat what 

 the shopkeepers say of their silks and calicoes, &quot; They appear 

 better in the piece than the pattern.&quot; While it is very desirable, 

 in all commercial transactions, to avoid, as much as possible, 

 occasions of misunderstanding, much must, after all, be left to 

 personal integrity, and that sense of honor and right which 

 commercial men would find it for their interest to guard with as 

 much tenacity as they would their lives. But alas ! if com 

 mercial transactions were so exact and explicit as to be incapable 

 of misconstruction or evasion, and men. were always under the 

 influence of a strict principle of integrity and justice, what would 

 become of the lawyers, the paid moral police and the strict 

 guardians of justice always on one side ? Many of them would 

 make very good farmers, a transmutation from which, in some 

 cases, the community might suffer no inconvenience. 



Where grain is sold in quantity, or by the load, and delivered 

 at the time of sale, these occasions of misunderstanding are 

 avoided, and the whole business is concluded at once. The 

 farmer leaves his corn and takes home his money ; and any 

 nnxiety respecting the rise or fall of the market, and the fulfil 

 ment of the engagement, coupled as it may be with the usual 

 contingencies of the future, is prevented. But the farmer or 

 seller is placed somewhat at the mercy of the buyer, when, as 

 the close of the market approaches, he finds himself with a load 

 of grain, which he must either sell, or carry back, or store, if it 



