Bushel

Bushels fill inventories, crop accounts and farm schedules: 40 bushels of wheat, 10 bushels of potatoes. The United States kept the old English Winchester bushel of 2,150.42 cubic inches, about 3 percent smaller than the imperial bushel Britain adopted in 1824.

Before the federal government sent standard measures to the states in the 1830s, states kept their own standards, so early measures varied. Many goods sold by the bushel were in practice weighed, with the pounds per bushel set by state law or local custom.