724 
Sale of Corn hij Weight . 
Having made inquiries from leading dealers in many parts 
of the kingdom, I must give them the credit of being generally 
in favour of a uniform system, though they are supplied with 
ready reckoners which, with little trouble, help them to calcu- 
late from one standard to another. There is no reason, however, 
why they should not be glad to be saved this unnecessary amount 
of trouble. In Shropshire, the dealer requires 75 or 72 lb. 
to the bushel, but when farmers buy grain for seed, they 
receive only 60 lb. to the bushel. Within fifteen miles of 
Bridgnorth, a great barley district, part of it known by the 
name of Wheatland, grain is sold by thirty different weights. 
Sir Edward Birkbeck and the inspectors are at issue on the 
extent to which barley is sold in Norfolk by weight, all agreeing 
1 hat barley is sold by measure for malting purposes, which does 
not come within the purview of the Corn Sales Inquiry. This 
point, however, I may observe, is to be the subject of further 
official inquiry. Sir Edward asked Mr. Chaney (Q. 71) : — 
How can weight be any criterion of value, when barley weighing 561b. 
may be worth only 24s. a quarter, and another sample which weighs but 
53 lb. might be worth, for malting purposes, lOs. per quarter more ? 
A. AVeight alone is not sufficient ; both must be taken together ; there is 
always the difficulty of combining a quantitative test with a qualitative 
test. "When we speak of value that is the qualitative test ; when we com- 
bine weight with measure for ascertaining the price of a bushel, that is the 
qualitative test ; when we speak of weighing corn for sale that is quantita- 
tive. A ton of corn is a quantitative expression ; but when we speak of a 
bushel of 60 lbs. of wheat that is a qualitative expression. It is from that 
confusion of terms that difficulty has arisen in the sale of corn : there is no 
other commodity in which so much difficulty has arisen. Take the sale of 
gold, which is rather an extreme case, but still so far an analogous one. 
Gold is sold by the ounce ; a purchaser, if he wishes to know the quality of 
it, asks whether it is 18-carat gold ; but no difficulty has arisen in the case 
of gold, because there has been no confusion between the quantitative and 
the qualitative expressions. 
Sir Edward asked how the corn inspectors get their informa- 
tion. This comes from the dealers, not the farmers, who 
have never been induced to take the trouble to give the in- 
formation. Not one in twenty of the transactions in corn in the 
smaller markets, or many of the larger, is ever given, 'as anyone 
can satisfy himself if he chooses to make the inquiry. 
Mr. Farquharson, who has taken a great interest in the tithe 
question, asked the witness whether an arrangement could not 
be made to sell by both weiglit and measure. To which Mr. 
Cham^y replied : — 
No arrangement could be suggested which would meet the natural con- 
ditions of every county and district throughout the United Kingdom. The 
natural weight of corn varies in every locality. If we suggested a figure, 
say 60 lb. to the bushel, we know it could not be followed, as the weight of 
