SELLING STOCK BY LIVE WEIGHT. 141 



turns out in a certain time an article which is worth so 

 much in the market. The current price of that article is 

 subject to fluctuation, and depends, firstly, upon its 

 quality at the time of sale, and secondly, on the law of 

 supply and demand. But unquestionably the return 

 which should be made to the vendor for that article is 

 contingent upon the quantity of it. If at a certain date 

 he has succeeded in manufacturing, say, 1,000 Ibs. of 

 beef of a particular quality, he ought, on commercial 

 principles, to receive just so much more than if he had 

 only made 900 Ibs. As it will be sold retail by weight, so 

 it should be sold wholesale by weight. The manufactured 

 article in other words, the beast or sheep may pass 

 through half a dozen hands between the producer and 

 consumer, but the basis of every transaction to which it 

 is subject should be its weight. 



So far, it is probable that all will be willing to go. The 

 crux of the question is, whether the basis of weight is in 

 the first place a practicable, and in the second place a 

 convenient one to adopt in the sale and purchase of live 

 stock ; supposing the affirmative to be proved in both 

 cases, there would then remain the further question 

 whether such a change as would be necessary would be 

 so desirable as to be, as the phrase goes, " worth making." 

 It is with these several considerations, and with others 

 incidental thereto, that this present paper attempts to 

 deal. 



The idea of selling stock on the basis of their live 

 weight is by no means a new one. But although the 

 scales have been sometimes used, the favourite method 

 of ascertaining the weight has hitherto been by measure- 

 ment. It would astonish many, perhaps, to know how 

 much time and labour have been expended on this 

 subject by British agricultural reformers during the past 

 hundred years. In the ninth volume of the first series 

 of this Journal, published in 1799, a short article appears 

 written by Lord Somerville, whose name is now less 



