Victualling Office, 8th Dec. 1795. An account, fhewing the produce of one quarter of wheat, barley, oats, rye, and Indian corn, refpectively, drejed through a twenty-one fhilling cloth; prepared in purfuance of a letter from the Honourable Dudley Ryder, chairman of the corn committee of the Honourable Houfe of Commons, dated the 28th November laft. N. B. The feveral fpecies of grain (excepting the Indian corn) above-mentioned were British, and of the growth of the present year; and coft, on the 26th October 1795, viz.- Wheat, 998. per quarter-oats, 29s. 6d.- barley, 385. rye, 50s. 6d. -- Indian corn, 46s. At which time the middlings from wheat were worth 96s. per quarter of 10 bushels of 56 lb.-and the bran from ditto, 10s. per quarter of 16 buthels of 16 lb. But the value of the middlings and bran produced from the other fpecies of grain, the Victualling Board are not of themselves competent to speak to. An account, fhewing the produce of 7 lb. (the pipulated quantity for two quartern loaves) of fundry mixtures of grain, &c. directed to be baked into bread;fhewing the weight of dough made therefrom, the quantity required for making two quartern loaves, according to the custom of the town bakers, being 9 lb. 10 oz. or 4 lb. 13 oz. each ;—the weight it turned out over or fhort thereof;—and the weight of the bread when taken out of the oven :-prepared in pursuance of a letter from the chairman of the corn committee, 28th Nov. laft. FLOUR. DOUGH. BREAD. Weightallowed for Wt. after being Overor fhort ofthe Weight Wt. when making two quar properly mixed allowed. No. DESCRIPTIONS OF BREAD. tern loaves, at 3lb. with yeaft, falt, taken out and water. Over. Short. oven. Wt. when Copy of a Letter from Charles Dundas, efq. to the Chairman of the Committee appointed to enquire into the bigh Price of Corn. SIR, AS many of the members, who have attended the committee appointed to inquire into the high price of corn, may visit their conftituents during the Christmas recefs, I beg leave to call their attention to a fubject which I conceive does moft materially affect the fale of wheat, and to propofe a remedy for fome part of the grievances which are now complained of, meaning that our conftituents may be confulted, during the adjournment of parliament, on the practicability of adopting weight as a regulator of meafure, which appears to me to be the only just criterion of the quality of corn. The By this, jobbing would be annibilated, and certainty would be efiablished in the returns of your markets, and in the profits of the miller, mealman, and baker. At this infiant, notwithstanding the prevailing opinion, that the Winchefter bufhel is the legal ftandard, yet there does not exift a certain mealure in the kingdom. bathel kept in the Exchequer is lefs than eight of the ftandard gallons there, the gallon lefs than four standard quarts, and the quart is more than two ftandard pints. The bushel of queen Elizabeth, 1591, contains 2,124 cubical inches; the gallon of the fame date, 271 cubical inches, and the pint, dated 1002, 3176 cubical inches: Therefore the inequalities of your 8 Sixty-four of the ftandard pints 2,240 2,227 But this inequality of your ftandard measures is not the grievance of which I particularly complain; it is the uncertain practice of felling corn in the country markets by measures of various fizes, which is an evident fraud on the confumers of bread, and an advantage to none but the jobbers in corn, who, from practice, are as well acquainted with the fize of every farmer's bufhel as with his face. As the meafure varies almoft every ten miles, the difference is a great encouragement to corn dealers, and the public are deceived by feeing in the Gazette the account of the prices of grain in different counties, which cannot be accurately collected, whilft the meafures fo locally differ. In markets where certainty of measures is not ftrictly attended to, all averages must be false. In many, where the nine gallon meafure is cuftomary, I have known meatures of ten gallons, and, what is a fhameful fraud on the confumer gentlemen's buthels of ten gallons and a half-The dealers, knowing this, give an advanced price for the largest measures, confequently when the average of the market is ftruck, and a return made made by a reduction of the cuftomary meature of the market to Winchetter meature, the price of the meatures of ten gallons being ranked as nine gallons, they raite the price of the article confiderably above the value it fold for In other markets, where no average is taken, the price of bread is generally fixed from the higheft fale of the beft wheat which has been in the market; confequently the price of flour, bearing a proportionate value to the wheat of which it is made, and that being put at a higher average (owing to this falte return) it follows, that bread is fold at a dearer rate than it would be if the fale of wheat was properly regulated. It will be faid, Why is not the use of the Winchefter bufhel enforced, as the law directs? This has been attempted during the laft century without fuccefs; it is a very unpopular proceeding to bring this forward. The lower orders of people deteft it, from the fallnefs of its contents. and, the dealers of provifions inftigate them to this, it being their intereft to retain every uncertainty in weights and meafures, and this cannot be enforced but by informations, which do not fuit the bone character of the people of this country; but if it was brought into general ufe, certainty (which is one object of this letter) • could not be obtained; for in the aft of measuring, no two men fill the fame quantity into the fame bufhels, and the manner of ftriking the meature is as uncertain as that of bling it. Weight, regulated by the 35th Geo. III. which gives the maghirates a power of preven ing falfe weights, would re The medy this, and prove the difference of the quality of good and bad wheat, which is fuppofed to le nearly one third; this difference will flew the fallacy of the origi nal formation of the buthel, which is to contain 495,040 grains of wheat, "well dried, and gathered out of the middle of the ear," notwithstanding there is perhaps as much ditierence in ears of wheat, arifing from foil, climate, and culture, as there is in the uncertain measures of this kingdom. fyftem of weighing corn is practifed in any parts of the country; it is authorifed to be done by the 31ft Geo. III. in which act the refpective weights of all grain taken by the bufhel, and alfo of the meal of the different grains, is inferted; and as moft corn dealers buy accord ing to their judgment of the weight of grain, and all millers weigh their corn on its being delivered at the mill, the regulation which I propofe would not be frange to them, and it will place the hopkeeper, manufacturer, and labourer (who purchase wheat for their own ule) on a fair footing with dealers It will reward the induftrious farmer, by giving the higheft price to the beft and cleaneft corn, while it expofes the idle and flovenly farmer, by reducing his price to the proportionate quality of his unproductive grain. Salt was originally fold by mea. fure-it is now fold by weight, 56lb. to the bufhel. The act which regulated this, in one inftant equalized all the falt measures in the kingdom; the fame effect would follow a fimilar proceeding in the fale of corn, by which the allize ca flour might be july fet, and the 3 relatiga relation between the articles likely to produce certainty in the returns from the markets of corn in this kingdom, and by a juft and clear flatenent of the relations between the prices of wheat and flour, to enable us to prevent fraud, and to fupply the inhabitants of the country with bread at a more moderate rate than it has been fold for, allowing a fair profit the perfons employed in the manufacturing of thefe articles, I would recommend the following refolutions, or fuch as would enable the committee to act with certainty in fetting the juft values on flour and bread. 1. That the returns fhall be made of the corn fold from every market town in England, ftating the quantity and the weight of grain fold in fuch markets. 2 That in ftriking the average of the grain fo fold, it thall be computed from the weight of fuch grain, as that is fixed by the 311t Geo. III c. 30. 7 Cats 32 56 55 53 48 fhall be refpectively deemed equal 22 If, therefore, the committee are of opinion that the introduction of the ufe of weight, to regulate and 3. That a certain quantity of the grain intended to be fold, not leis than one Winchefter buthel fhall be pitched in the public market, and the weight of the wheat, or other corn, openly marked on fuch fample. 4. That the weight of the bufhel, and the quantity of the corn fold, fhall be delivered, with an account of the price, to the clerk of the market for the purpofe of making his returns, and alfo to prove the quality of the corn, if the quantity fold thould prove, on the delivery, to be of an inferior quality to the fample produced in the maiker, MILLERS. 1. To keep a regular account of afcertain the meafures of corn, is the weight of all corn delivered in |