206 MEASURES AND WEIGHTS. 



lated by political economy or scientific deductions, would be 

 to exceed our limits, either of capacity or space. The origin 

 of the standards appears often to have been accidental ; thus 

 " Henry I. ordered the length of his arm to be the criterion 

 of the yard measure ; and 51 Henry III. declares 32 grains 

 of wheat dry, taken out of the midst of the ear, to be the 

 standard weight of the twentieth part of an ounce." " It is 

 with this subject," says a writer in the Quarterly Review al- 

 ready quoted, " as with laws and manners : constant attempts 

 at improvement appear necessary even to prevent deteriora- 

 tion. Experience shows that few matters have a greater 

 tendency to grow worse, or more obstinately resist correc- 

 tion, than common usages in weights and measures." 



I have collected the following tables of measures and 

 weights, as likely to be valuable to many of my readers ; the 

 first table, calculated by James M. Garnet, Esq., of Essex 

 County, Va., was first published in Mr. Ruffin's Farmer's 

 Register ; the second is taken from the Agricultural Journal 

 of New York. 



GARNET'S TABLE. 



A box 24 inches by 16 inches square, and 22 inches deep, 

 will contain a barrel, or 10,752 cubic inches. 



A box 24 inches by 16 inches square, and 11 inches deep, 

 will contain a half- barrel, or 5,376 cubic inches. 



A box 1 6 inches by 1 6.8 inches square, and 8 inches deep, 

 will contain a bushel, or 2,150.4 cubic inches. 



A box 12 inches by 11.2 inches square, and 8 inches 

 deep, will contain half a bushel, or 1,075 cubic inches. 



A box 8 inches by 8.4 inches square, and 8 inches deep, 

 will contain one peck, or 537.6 cubic inches. 



A box 8 inches by 8 inches square, and 4.2 inches deep, 

 will contain one half-peck, or 268.8 cubic inches. 



A box 7 inches by 4 inches square, and 4.8 inches deep, 

 will contain a half-gallon, or 131.4 cubic inches. 



