301 



on another day than Monday : bnt the present custom is so 

 strongly established that any alteration seems hopeless. 



The laws of the State prescribe the manner of cutting up 

 and packing beef, and of making returns to the seller. They 

 may be seen in the Appendix ;* but as they allow the parties 

 to make their own arrangements at their pleasure, they are lit- 

 tle observed, and custom rides over the law. For the last ten 

 years ati intelligent and exact person has been employed as re- 

 porter at the Brighton market. He takes account of the num- 

 ber of animals of all descriptions and varieties, excepting hor- 

 ses, brought weekly into the market, and notes the average 

 prices at which they are sold. His reports appear the next 

 morning in one of the most widely published daily papers in 

 Boston, and the ensuing day in other papers, and are circulat- 

 ed throughout the State. Before this arrangement, farmers 

 and drovers in the interior depended on mere rumors, which 

 seldom reached them in season to regulate their movements in 

 regard to the market, and were not always to be relied on. 

 The exact reports now given, are received with confidence, 

 and are of great importance to the farmers and drovers. They 

 now learn whether the markets are glutted or thin, and the 

 prices which they may calculate upon. This saves them 

 from many mistakes and disappointments. 



The importance and responsibility of the situation occupied 

 by this reporter are very great. The farmers and drovers in 

 the interior understand his reports to be made up with careful 

 inquiry and the strictest impartiality, so that they feel an en- 

 tire reliance upon them, and regulate their movements accord- 

 ingly. There is good reason to think that attempts have 

 sometimes been made to bias these reports, so that by putting, 

 for example, the prices lower than the truth, droves might be 

 purchased before their arrival at market at a lower rate than 

 they would otherwise command. Any reasonable distrust of 

 the mtegrity and impartiality of the reporter would at once, it 

 is obvious, render his reports, which are now so valuable, 



*Appendix K. 



