ROOT CROPS. 203 



knowledge of your committee that they could not at first credit 

 them entirely. A particular examination of the facts by some 

 of your committee, who went upon the ground, has resulted in 

 the conviction that, if the mode of measurement adopted by Mr. 

 Brown can be approved, his statements may be credited. The 

 certificate of the foreman on the farm is attached, who proba- 

 bly knew much better than Mr. Brown himself, who is not pre- 

 sumed to have had any hand in the growing or measuring of 

 the crops. The general mode of measurement adopted was, to 

 select a small parcel of land presumed to contain an average 

 of the field, ascertain the exact quantity grown on this space, 

 and then compute the entire field as yielding accordingly. As, 

 for instance, four rods of a field of onions were found to have 

 yielded twenty-five bushels ; then eighty rods, or half an acre, 

 would be taken to have yielded five hundred, more or less, as 

 the fact may be. This will do, if the parcel to average is judi- 

 ciously selected ; but who is to judge of this ? Surely not the 

 claimant or his hired laborers ; nothing less than persons of 

 experience in such matters entirely free from bias. This con- 

 sideration applies with full force to the several statements 

 presented by Mr. Brown. The committee have felt it due to 

 truth and propriety to present this matter distinctly, that it 

 may be passed on at the present time, and that a rule may be es- 

 tablished for future guidance. The committee have no reason 

 to believe that Mr. Brown intended to mislead their judgment 

 as to his crops ; still they think his standard of measure alto- 

 gether too loose to be relied on. In the opinion of the com- 

 mittee, " averages are at best but guesses ; " and they think 

 very few claimants will guess against their own interest. 



" Where self the wavering balance shakes, 

 It's rarely right adjusted." 



Mr. Brown's crops were as follows : — 



Squashes. — Thirteen and one-half tons to the acre, of a kind 

 called marketable, by which we understand a kind that would 

 sell — supposed to be a mixture of the marrow with the African, 

 growing much larger than the genuine marrow, but not of so 

 good quality. This was a large produce indeed — larger than 

 your committee ever knew of the marrow. Of the value of this 



