other particulars that might lead to make the Agricultural Reports, in time, more perfect than it was poffible to do in the first attempt. SECT. II.-Weights and Measures. In this county, as in other parts of the kingdom, the weights and measures are various, in various diftricts. At Inveraray the boll of meal is eight ftone Scotch Troy, or Dutch; 17 1-half lb. avoirdupois to the ftone. At Campbelton it is 10 ftone, of the fame weight; or 16 pecks of 10 lb. Scotch Troy, or 10 lb. 15 oz. avoirdupois, each. In fome parts of Knapdale and Lorn, the boll is nine ftone; and dry measures vary in thefe parts nearly in the fame proportion, At Inveraray, oats, barley, and malt, are measured by a firlot of 3438.183 cubic inches; equal to one firlot, two pints, one mutchkin, Scotch ftandard measure; which makes the boll (of four firlots) 7.258 per cent. better than the Scotch ftandard measure, and equal to fix bufhels one peck nine pints 10.2 cubic inches, English ftandard measure. In Kintyre, oats, barley, or bear and malt, were for time immemorial fold by a heaped peck, of which the standard lay with the dean of guild in Campbelton. Of this meafure 17 pecks made, and still make, the Kintyre boll from Auguft to Patrickmas, and only 16 from that date to the new crop; and the divifions of the boll are regulated by the fame proportions. As meafuring by the heaped peck had been long confidered as inconvenient and inaccurate, it was agreed on in the year 1782 by the heritors of the district, justices of the peace, and magistrates of the borough, that the heaped peek fhould be converted into a ftriked one, which should contain exactly the fame quantity. This was accordingly done with great care and attention, and the new 1 striked peck, corresponding to the old, was committed to the dean of guild, and has been fince the ftandard of the diftrict. The dimenfions of it are 12 English inches diameter, equally wide throughout, and 10 1-tenth English inches deep. The contents of it in cubic inches are 1142.28576*; which makes the Kintyre boll 19418.85792 cubic inches, before Patrickmas, and 18276.57216 after it +. The first is equal to nine Winchester bushels and 65.03112 cubic inches (about of a bufhel), and equal to one boll eight pecks 1.61788 lippie, Linlithgow standard measure. The latter is equal to 8 1-half Winchester bushels ‡, excepting 2.0394 cubic inches, and to one boll 6 pecks, 3. lippies, Linlithgow. 45 At Inveraray, the peck of potatoes contains 14 pints and que mutchkin, ale measure. At Campbelton, it contains about nine English wine gallons, and is given heaped; and generally weighs about 56 lb. avoirdupois. Beans and pease are fold in Kintyre by the old peck friked, or by a measure one third less than that for oats and bear. Lineal and liquid measures are the fame with the Scotch standards. Butter, cheese, tallow, hay, wool, and lint, are fold by the stone of 24 lb. avoirdupois. Butcher meat by the pound of 24 ounces avoirdupois at Inveraray, and of 16 ounces at Campbelton. The herring barrel contains 32 English gallons of wine measure, or 67.28 customary ale pints of 109.866 cubic inches each. The inconveniences, occafioned by fuch a diversity of weights and measures as prevail over all the kingdom, are fo many and fo great, that it is astonishing how they have been *Equal to 11 Scotch pints, and a very little more than two thirds of a gill. † A lippie more, or 1-64th of a boll, for town dues, is given with every ball delivered in Campbelton. The Winchester bufhel contains 2150.42 cubic inches. The Linlithgow boll standard measure, 12822.096 fo long endured. By one of the articles of the Union it is enacted, "That the fame weights and measures shall be "ufed throughout the united kingdom as are now efta"blished in England." Might not the sheriffs, justices, and magiftrates, of all counties, diftricts, and boroughs, convert the weights and measures of all places under their jurisdiction to a conformity with these standards, and take every legal measure to enforce the use of them? Every person interested in giving and receiving by the old usages, would foon learn how much of the new would be equal to the old; and in a fhort time all would be reconciled to a change which would be attended with fuch happy confequences. The wifdom of our legiflature will not furely allow the prefent confufion in these matters to be of much longer conti nuance. As feveral counties in Scotland have published lately their refolutions of applying for an act of parliament, for having all kinds of grain, potatoes, &c. fold by weight, as in Ireland; it is hoped that fuch an act will be obtained, and be productive of much good. By act of parliament (31. Geo. III.), the Winchester bufhel fhould weigh In order to have a statistical view of the whole county, the following Table of the infular parts of it (which do not fall within the writer's particular province) is given along with the annexed Table for the continental part of it. From this and the annexed table for the continent, the whole county will be found to be, * These lie in the parish of Small Ifles, but belong to this county. The population of that parish in 1755 was 943, of which 650 may be placed to these iflands. In 1768 Elan-muck contained 172, Rum 302, and Canna 233; in all 707 fouls. Stat. Acc. of Small Ifles. |