344 [Assembly 



The potato and apple merchants have an easy way of filling up 

 their barrels, when not over three fourths full. They clap a tub 

 over the top of the barrel and upset it, then turn it back upon its 

 bottom, and presto I change I the barrel is full. It is full time 

 that we had a change in our laws of trade, so that we should 

 know what quantity we are entitled to in all our purchases. It 

 would be of equal advantage to the farmer, and be a great pro- 

 moter of a greater degree of honesty. 



Mr. Mapes remarked that there was no greater mistake than to 

 suppose that small vegetables would stow more closely than large 

 ones, except relatively to each other. Every practical man knows 

 that a bushel of large potatoes weighs more than a bushel of small 

 ones, and after they are cut in two and thrown promiscuously 

 back, they will be found to have increased in measure materially. 

 Large logs of wood after having been split up, are increased in 

 measure. Four cords of logs will make five cords of split wood. 

 Eggs are often of double size, and should be sold by weight and 

 not by the dozen. The modes of measure adopted in our mar- 

 kets are truly ridiculous, and equally so elsewhere. In Cam- 

 bridge, England, and many other places, butter is sold by the 

 yard, after having been forced through an opening with a machine 

 like a sausage stuffer. Beets, carrots, and parsnips, cannot be 

 measured with any correctness. The number that can be placed 

 in a bushel measure, depends entirely upon the skill of those who 

 pack them. If all our farm products were sold by weight, far- 

 mers would soon discover that large specimens would give the 

 greatest number of pounds per acre, instead of smaller ones pro- 

 duced in greater number, and it would lead to the production of 

 vegetables of superior quality. Cabbages range from five to 

 twenty-five pounds each, and thus every housekeeper is called 

 upon to be expert in judging of their weight, before she can buy 

 with any certainty of getting value. 



Rev. Mr. Carter, of Brooklyn. — There is only one side to this 

 question. The food for the poor people in this city, New Yorkyjs 

 a very important consideration. They are defrauded greatly by 

 the common way of measure of articles. The delicious article 

 strawberries, so desired by all in their season, is one of those in 



