chap. XVI. THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 337 



verage amount may be about one-thirteenth part 

 of the corns manufactured. From the mode ge- 

 nerally observed at present, in charging multures, 

 there is room for much imposition. The whole 

 dues for the mill-master and his servants, are paid 

 by measure : and their measures are heaped and 

 hand-waved, which can bear no proportion to 

 any legal standard. When this practice was in- 

 troduced, meal of every kind was sold by mea- 

 sure ; and, in order to make it measure out as 

 far as possible, it was the custom to grind it ve- 

 ry fine or small. But, for a considerable time 

 past, meal has been generally sold by weight ; 

 in consequence of which it is made rounder and 

 better, there not being the same temptation to 

 grind it small as formerly. When meal was sold 

 by measure, it was reasonable that the multures 

 should be exacted by measure ; but it is unfair 

 to continue the practice of measuring, especially 

 in the way it is done, now that meal is sold by 

 weight. This evil every proprietor has it in his 

 power to remedy when he lets the mill. Let 

 the mill-master have a fair and adequate allow- 

 ance for himself and his servants ; but let that 

 allowance be precisely ascertained, and made 

 payable by the . standard meal-weight, of the 

 country. 



3^//)', Another circumstance frequently com- 

 plained of as a check to improvement, is the ex- 

 orbitant interest sometimes demanded by pro- 

 prietors for money expended on Inclosing. Fenc- 

 ing land, when substantially executed, is justly 

 considered as a permanent improvement. Five 

 per cent., therefore, on money laid out this way, 

 js thought sufficient, as the landlord has the le- 

 Uu * 



