[Regia-NA] Field measurement

[J. Kim Siddorn]

I came across this on a very different list.

Before I rewrite it for Chronicle, any comments anyone?

Regards,


Kim Siddorn

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When a field was ploughed by a team of horses or oxen in mediaeval England
the ploughman didn't just go up and down from one end of the field to the
other.  It took a certain distance across the field to conveniently turn
the whole team round at the end of a furrow. (The length of a furrow or
furlong was a distance fixed by the division of land into pieces by the
feudal system). So they would plough up one furrow and plough back down
after turning the team around leaving the piece of land in between
unploughed. However by repeating this process at each end of the field the
land in between gradually got ploughed in. To ensure that the furrows met
exactly on finally filling in the unploughed portion they adjusted the
overall length of the team of oxen and plough, and thus the required
turning distance, by fixing the length of the chains between the oxen and
the plough. Thus the term "chain" came into being. When wanting to fix land
area one chain by one furlong (acre) was  convenient since all understood
what that meant in terms of time and resource requirement to farm the land.
Even in the fifties my father with mechanized equipment, allowing four
furrows to be ploughed at a time, used the same methodology. To do this
effectively a furrow must be very straight indeed.

The reluctance of the English to give up these antiquated measures is in
part due to the apprenticeship system of passing down this knowledge, be it
chains or thread size. Up to date knowledge has rightly superseded many of
these
old measures but, God damn it, they are based on bloody good experience
and, say what you may, a pint of beer is just right to quench your initial
thirst and 355 ml. is not!