The lowest measure is a barleycorn.[36]
| 3 | barleycornsare | 1 inch | 1 in. |
| 12 | inches | 1 foot | 1 ft. |
| 3 | feet | 1 yard | 1 yd. |
| 5½ | yards | 1 pole | 1 po. |
| 40 | poles or 220 yards | 1 furlong | 1 fur. |
| 8 | furlongs or 1760 yards | 1 mile | 1 mi. |
| Also | |||
| 6 | feet | 1 fathom | 1 fth. |
| 69⅓ | miles | 1 degree | 1 deg. or 1°. |
A geographical mile is ¹/₆₀th of a degree, and three such miles are one nautical league.
In the measurement of cloth or linen the following are also used:
| 2¼ | inches are | 1 nail | 1 nl. |
| 4 | nails | 1 quarter (of a yard) | 1 qr. |
| 3 | quarters | 1 Flemish ell | 1 Fl. e. |
| 5 | quarters | 1 English ell | 1 E. e. |
| 6 | quarters | 1 French ell | 1 Fr. e. |
215. MEASURES OF SURFACE, OR SUPERFICIES.
All surfaces are measured by square inches, square feet, &c.; the square inch being a square whose side is an inch in length, and so on. The following measures may be deduced from the last, as will afterwards appear.
| 144 | square inches are | 1 square foot | 1 sq. ft. |
| 9 | square feet | 1 square yard | 1 sq. yd. |
| 30¼ | square yards | 1 square pole | 1 sq. p. |
| 40 | square poles | 1 rood | 1 rd. |
| 4 | roods | 1 acre | 1 ac. |
Thus, the acre contains 4840 square yards, which is ten times a square of 22 yards in length and breadth. This 22 yards is the length which land-surveyors’ chains are made to have, and the chain is divided into 100 links, each ·22 of a yard or 7·92 inches. An acre is then 10 square chains. It may also be noticed that a square whose side is 69⁴/₇ yards is nearly an acre, not exceeding it by ⅕ of a square foot.
216. MEASURES OF SOLIDITY OR CAPACITY.[37]