53 barrels are from M"" Beekman 32 from ]\Iad^ Ex^ in the widow, and 32 from M"" Rotzen

117 J

The experience that the tare of the Barrels is very incorrect, and that such deception causes the people not to take the flour in barrels according to the Tare, but ordinarily to return the barrels to me that I may make a new tare, led me to make a bet with Ml" Robert Levingston Junr that a barrel, tared 171bs.,

660 TAPERS RELATING TO THK

weiglied 201bs. I was universally censured for making such a wager. But when the Barrel was emptied and well shaken and cleaned it weighed 211bs tare. Judge, Sir, what a loss of iiour this is. I sent M^" Baggs 20 barrels to day of M«-d Exvin, marked ED. and requested him also to investigate the cheat. 18 barrels are tared 161bs: 1 barrel 171bs and one 191bs. I would make another bet that not one of them runs below 201bs tare. It is too palpable a fraud to mark so many at IGlbs. M"^ Baggs will not fail to advise you how the tare turns out.

At the close of the last quarter, 25 March, I introduced the New York method for the ascertaining the persons to be supported. I keep the register myself and have it signed by the Captains in order to obtain a more full knowledge of the condition of the people. In the absence of such examination I tell them what to do. I oblige them by this examination to proceed more exactly with their declarations, and I have found occasion to make a greater deduction when necessary after the account and distribution have been made out.