Bushel
A bushel is a unit of dry volume, usually subdivided into eight local gallons in the systems of Imperial units and U.S. customary units. It is used for volumes of dry commodities, not liquids, most often in agriculture. It is abbreviated as bsh. or bu.
- 1 U.S. bushel = 35.23907017 litres = 8 corn/dry gallons = 9.309177489 wine/liquid gallons
- 1 Imperial bushel = 36.36872 litres = 8 Imperial gallons
The United States or Winchester bushel was originally defined as the volume of a cylindrical container 18½ inches in diameter and 8 inches deep (2150.420171… in³); it is now defined as 2150.42 cubic inches exactly. It is divided into eight dry gallons, which are different from the liquid gallons with which most Americans are more familiar. Nor are they the same as the Imperial gallon. There are four pecks in a bushel.[1]
Bushels are now most often used as units of mass rather than of volume. The bushels in which grains are bought and sold on commodity markets or at local grain elevators, and for reports of grain production, are all units of mass. This is done by assigning a standard weight to each commodity that is to be measured in bushels. These bushels depend on the commodities being measured; some of the more common ones are (all exact):
- Oats
- USA: 32 lb ≈ 14.515 kg
- Canada: 34 lb ≈ 15.422 kg
- Barley: 48 lb ≈ 21.772 kg
- Maize (corn): 56 lb ≈ 25.401 kg
- Wheat and soybeans: 60 lb ≈ 27.215 kg
Other specific values are defined (and those definitions may vary in different jurisdictions, including from state to state in the United States) for other grains, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, coal, hair, and many other commodities.
Government policy in both the United States and the United Kingdom is to phase out units such as the bushel and replace them with the metric system as used for all purposes in the rest of the world, and for all scientific and technical purposes world wide. It is therefore important to know how the bushel relates to the metric equivalent, and whether the bushels are used as units of mass or units of volume.
The name “bushel” has also been used to translate foreign units of a similar size and sometimes shared origin, like the German “Scheffel”.
History
The bushel was originally a measure of capacity for grain. During the Middle Ages, the bushel of wheat was supposed to weigh 64 tower pounds, but when the tower system was abolished in the 16th century, it was described as 56 avoirdupois pounds. The bushel was rarely used in Scotland, Ireland or Wales during the Middle Ages.
Until and before the 19th century there were even more gallons in use. Examples:
- 1792 in³
- standard wine gallon preserved at Guildhall
- 1848 in³
- statute of 5th of Anne
- 2118.4 in³
- ancient Rumford quart (1228)
- 2124 in³
- Exchequer (Henry VII., 1091, with rim)
- 2130 in³
- ancient Rumford (1228)
- 2150 in³
- Winchester, statute 13 + 14 by William III.
- 2168 in³ − 16 spoonfuls
- Exchequer (Henry VII., 1601, E.E.)
- 2168 in³
- Exchequer (1601, E.), corn
- 2176 in³
- corn (1688)
- 2217.44 in³
- coal, statute 12 of Anne
- 2224 in³
- Exchequer (Henry VII., with copper rim)
- 2227.2 in³
- Exchequer (1601 and 1602 pints)
- 2240 in³
- Exchequer (1601 quart)
- 2256 in³
- Treasury (gallon for beer and ale)