USEFUL TABLES. 419 



bushel of potatoes, and we have 485 bushels to the acre. Here, again, as it is 

 said constant dropping weareth away stones, a line may be taken to urge the 

 propriety of municipal, if not legislative measures, to cause all common market- 

 able commodities to be sold by weight — even ducks and chickens should be so 

 sold. 



It has often been a matter of amusement, less than surprise, to find how a very 

 large proportion of practical farmers may be confounded by putting to them ques- 

 tions which their every-day transactions require that they should be able to an- 

 swer at a word. There is, for instance, not one in twenty that can tell the ordi- 

 nary weight of a bushel of potatoes or buckwheat, or of a horse-cart, or a bushel 

 of oysters. Yet for many and obvious reasons they ought to know the ordinary 

 weight of everything to be transported on or from their farms upon the road. 



The following Tables may be of some practical use to a greater number than 

 may be willing to acknowledge it. By-the-by, we would recommend every farm- 

 er to keep a scrap-book, in which everything of this sort which he meets with in 

 his party newspaper (and many neither take nor read any other) might be pasted 

 and preserved. Let it be paged and given in the keeping of the good housewife, 

 who, on the least hint, with her ever ready scissors at her side, will cut out what 

 is indicated, and paste it in the book ; and then the farmer himself, or his son, 

 some rainy day, when kept from school, can make an tnrfea' according to the sub- 

 ject, so that any particular matter may be readily referred to. But here are 

 these homely Tables : 



ST. LOUIS WEIGHTS OF PRODUCE. — NUMBER OF POUNDS AVOIRDUPOIS TO THE BUSHEL.' 



Wheat 60 



Beans, except Castor Beans. CO 



Clover-seed 60 



.Potatoes 56 



Rye 56 



Corn 56 



Flax-.seed 55 



Barley 48 



Oats 35 



Onions 57 



Dried Peaches 33 



Dried Apples 24 



B uckwheat-seed 52 



Castor Beans 46 



Hemp-seed 44 



Blue-Grass seed 12 



Timothy-seed 45 



Salt 50 



Bran 20 



One bn.9hel of Charcoal shall be equal to five pecks. 

 One bushel of Lime shall be equal to five pecks. 



The reader Avill, of course, understand that these are standard weights ; and, 

 when the article really weighs more or less, the payment is regulated by this 

 standard. 



A Valuable Table. — The following Table, compiled from the calculations of J. M. Gar- 

 nett, Esq., of Virg-hiia, will be found exceedingly valuable to mauy of our mechanical read- 

 ers: 



A box 24 mches by 16 inches square, and 22 inches deep, will contain a barrel, or 10,852 

 cubic inches. 



A box 24 inches by 16 inches square, and 11 inches deep, will contain half a barrel, or 

 5,426 cubic inches. 



A box 16 inches by 16-8 inches square, and 8 inches deep, will contain one bushel, or 

 2.150'42 cubic inches. 



A box 12 inches by 11-2 inches square, and 8 inches deep, wiU contain half a bushel, or 

 1,07 .'3 cubic inches. 



A box 8 inches by 8-4 inches square, and 6 inches deep, will contain one peck, or 536-1 

 cubic inches. 



A box 3 inches by 8 inches square, and 4-2 mchea deep, \vill contain one-half peck, or 

 267-0 cubic inches. 



A box 7 inches by 4 inches square, and 4-8 inches deep, will contain half a gallon, or 131-4 

 cubic iiiclies. 



A box 4 inches by 4 inches square, and 4-2 inches deep, will contain one quart, or 67-5 

 cubic inches. 



To return to the potatoes — it seems to be understood that pains should be 

 taken, in putting them away, to secure them not only against xvet, but against 

 the heat that proceeds from too large a bulk, and which promotes fermentation 



(819) 



