Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Bushel

BUSHEL, a measure of capacity for dry substances, such as grain, pulse, fruit, &c.; it contains, in general, four pecks, or eight gallons; being the eighth part of a quarter.

According to the earliest excise-laws, a London bushel is to contain eight wine gallons of wheat; the gallon, eight pounds of wheat (Troy-weight, which see); the pound, twelve ounces; the ounce, twenty penny-weights; and each penny-weight, thirty-two grains, or corns, of wheat taken from the middle of the ear. But as such grains are of very different weight in different ears, nay, in the same ear, and even in the same field, the uncertainty of this calculation must be obvious. Nevertheless this standard bushel is kept in the Exchequer: when filled with common spring-water, and measured before the House of Commons in 1696, it was found to contain 2145,6 solid inches; and the same water being weighed, amounted to 1131 ounces, and 14 penny-weights, troy. The first malt-act, however, altered these proportions, as it was then enacted, that the legal Winchester bushel should be 18 1/2 inches diameter, and eight inches deep. The coal-bushel was regulated at 19 1/2 inches wide:—thus, says Mr. Renardson, in the 491st number of the "Philosophical Transactions," two measures, both differing from the original one, were legally established; and from time to time innovations were made, till it became difficult to determine, what was meant by the name of any measure.—Beside this inconvenience, the bushel has, in different counties and places, and without any apparent cause for such diversity, been made of different dimensions: at Abingdon and Andover, a bushel contains nine gallons; at Appleby and Penrith, a bushel of peas, rye, and wheat, holds 16 gallons; of barley, big, malt, mixt malt, and oats, 20 gallons. A bushel contains, at Carlisle, 24 gallons; at Chester, a bushel of wheat, rye, &c. is 32 gallons; and of oats, 40; at Dorchester, a bushel of malt and oats is 10 gallons; at Falmouth, the bushel of stricken coals is 16 gallons; of other articles, 20, and usually 21 gallons; at Kingston-upon-Thames, the bushel contains 18 1/2; at Newbury, 9; at Wycomb and Beading, 18 3/4; and at Stamford, 16 gallons.

In ascertaining the accurate weight of a bushel of corn, there is a considerable difference arising both from the nature of the grain, and its relative perfection: thus, a bushel of oats weighs only about 40 pounds; of peas and beans, about 60; and the best wheat should weigh from 62 to 64 pounds.—With greater accuracy, however, may be calculated the cubic, or solid capacity of vessels; so that a bushel containing 2145 inches, will be nearly equal to one foot and a quarter cubic measure: consequently a body of a cart, comprising forty feet, will hold about thirty-two bushels, stricken measure.—If a calculation be made as to the number of perfect grains of wheat, which ought to be in one standard bushel, it will be found that the net amount is 491,520 grains, or 7680 to one pint, or pound.