“Gentlemen,—The time has arrived for the trade at once to make a move for the revision of tares on all raw sugars. Facts prove the evil of the present system to be greatly on the increase. We submit a case as under, and only one out of twenty. On the 30th August, 1858, we bought 3 hogsheads of Barbados, mark TG K Invoice Tares. Re Tares. No. cwt. qrs. lb. lb. No. cwt. qrs. lb. 1 1 2 14 6 drft. 1 1 3 27 7 1 2 7 7 1 3 20 3 1 2 21 3 1 3 27 ───────────── ───────────── 4 3 20 5 3 18 Deduct 4 3 20 ───────────── _s._ £ _s._ _d._ 0 3 26 at 42 — 2 1 3 “We make a claim for £2. 1_s._ 3_d._; we are told by the wholesale grocer there is no redress. “There is another evil which the retail grocer has to contend with, that is, the mode of sampling raw sugars: the foots are excluded from the merchants’ samples. Facts will prove that in thousands of hogsheads of Barbados this season there is an average of 5 cwt. of foots in each; we have turned out some with 10 cwt., which are at least 5_s._ per cwt. less value than sample, and in these cases we are told again there is no redress. “These two causes are bringing hundreds of hard-working men to ruin {123} and will bring hundreds more unless the trade take it up, and we implore them to unite in obtaining so important a revision. “We are, Gentlemen, your obedient servants, “WALKER and STAINES.[6] “Birmingham, October 19, 1858.” [6] The abuses described in this letter have now, we believe, been abolished. A more subtle method of imposition remains to be added. It is the practice of sugar-refiners to put moist, crushed sugar into dried casks. During the time that elapses before one of these casks is opened by the retailer, the desiccated wood has taken up the excess of water from the sugar; which is thus brought again into good condition. When the retailer, finding that the cask weighs much more than was allowed as tare by the wholesale dealer, complains to him of this excess, the reply is—“Send it up to us, and we will _dry it_ and weigh it, as is the custom of the trade.”