WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 41, 5 April 1940, Page 30

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

To The Editor, "The Listener." Sit,-We sell pickled cod by the barrel, trawled cod at so much each, hooked cod by the score, crimped. cod by the pound, shrimps by the stone, soles by the pair, Dutch smelts go by the basket, and English smelts by the hundred. Butter in Ireland is sold by the cask and the firkin, in England by the pound of 16ozs., but the roll of 24ozs., the stone, and the hundred-weight (which is not 100Ibs. as in Canada and the United States, but 112lIbs.). A load of straw is 1;296lbs., of old hay 2,160Ibs., though it is not specified when hay’ becomes old. A firkin of butter is 56Ibs., a firkin of soap 64lbs.,, and a firkin of raisins 112Ibs. A hogshead of beer is 54 gallons, but a hogshead of wine is 63 gallons. So a pipe of Marsala is 93 gallons, of Madeira 92 gallons, of Bucellas 117 gallons, of port 103 gallons, and of Teneriffe 100 gallons. A stone weight of a living man is 14lbs., but a stone weight of a dead ox is 8lbs., a stone of cheese is 16lbs., of glass 5Ibs., or iron 141bs., of hemp 32lbs., of flax at Belfast 1634lbs., and at Downpatrick 24lbs., of wool sold by growers 141b., sold by woolstaplers 14Ibs., sold to each other 15lbs., while a hundredweight of pork is 8lbs. heavier at Belfast than it is at Cork (another injustice to Ireland). A barrel of beef is 200Ibs., of butter or flour 196Ib,, of gunpowder 100Ibs., of soft soap 256lbs., of beer 36 gallons, and of tar 2614 gallons, while a barrel of herrings’ is 500 fish. Shall we win’ the war? Yours, etc.,

MAXIXE

Napier, March 12, 1940.