116 
Agricultural Weights and Measures. 
by instinct at the first figures to the left and appreciates 
thereby the main issue involved. Thus the cricket enthusiast 
grasps first the interestingly close competition between Hirst 
and Quaife in 1905, and then goes on at his leisure to the 
minor question of the small difference in the former’s favour. 
A similar system has only to be enforced in agricultural 
transactions for a very brief period, and people will be won- 
dering how it was that they put up with the old confusion, 
the old loss of time and patience, the old complicated book- 
keeping, the old delay. 
Within the last few months an important step in this 
direction has been taken at Birmingham by Messrs. Kynoch, 
whose business has been, since November 1, 1906, carried on 
by means of the decimal system. In the Daily Express for 
October 17, 1906, appeared an interesting explanation of their 
reasons for adopting this system. They reckon the losses to 
British commerce by our confusion of systems at millions 
of pounds sterling annually. An accountant, writing to the 
same paper (October 19, 1906), stated that opinion is steadily 
growing in favour of the decimal system, and that the step 
thus taken would mitigate “ a worry hampering men of 
business all through life.” He continued : — 
“ The decimal system, with its easy method of moving a dot to the left and 
right and getting an instant correct answer, is much preferable in every way. 
At the present time we work our accounts and the returns from every depart- 
ment out to two places of decimals, so we know to the least hundredth part 
exactly the prices we can buy and sell at. Many business houses only work 
these returns out to eighths, which means a great difference when dealing, as 
we do, in large quantities. By our exact method we can buy so as to sell to 
give our customers the greatest possible advantage.” 
These remarks were endorsed in subsequent letters by 
other representatives of large business houses. The letter 
from Lord Belhaven and Stenton (October 20, 1906), empha- 
sized the great saving of school time which xvould result. 
This point might even have been made greater had his 
lordship remembered how crowded is the modern curriculum. 
The London Chamber of Commerce and the London Trade 
Protection Association approve the change. A “ Rugby 
Conservative ” whose objections found voice somewhat amus- 
ingly in a Radical journal, thought the change ought to be 
opposed, because it would entail upon shopkeepers the cost 
of new weights {Daily Chronicle, October 27, 1906), but 
at this rate hardly any reforms would be possible. A more 
real conservatism would, one fancies, be found in the dictum 
of Mr. Acland, that “ the metric system is sure to be adopted 
sooner or later by this country, wherefore the sooner we make 
up our minds to make the change the better will be the result ” 
{Tribune, October 26, 1906). 
