Bushel

Container of medium fanega de capacidad (Cuenca, Spain).

The fanega is a unit of measurement of traditional Spanish metrology, prior to the establishment and implementation of the decimal metric system. It is both a unit of volume or capacity and a unit of area, with great variability depending on the region. Within the framework of Castilla, the conversion is 55.5 liters of capacity or 6459.6 square meters for the surface bushel. It was used to measure agricultural products (especially cereals) or aggregates, and farms. It is divided into two rooms, four pages or twelve bushels.

Measure of capacity

According to the Castilian framework, the fanega as a traditional unit of volume or capacity is equivalent to 55.5 liters, although this equivalence varies depending on the places of use. Its name comes from the Hispanic Arabic: faníqa, measure of aggregates, and this from classical Arabic: fanīqah, bag for transporting earth.

Surface measurement

The fanegada, as a traditional unit of agricultural area, is equivalent to 10,000 square varas (100 × 100 varas, where 1 vara = 0.835905 meters). According to the Dictionary of the Spanish language, "according to the Castilla framework, it contains 576 square estates and is equivalent to 64,596 areas". In La Rioja it is equivalent to 2000 square meters, although it is highly variable according to the places.

The "bushel of a fist" or "bushel of planting" It is the amount of land necessary to sow a bushel of grain, under the conditions typical of traditional agriculture. Land of better quality required less area and hence the difference in area for different regions. The usefulness of such a measure was evident: two farmers who had planted 20 bushels of wheat knew that their harvest would be similar. It corresponded to 6,000 square yards or 4,192.4230 square meters.

The "fanega de tierra", "fanegada" o "hanegada" (not to be confused with a homophone word: "anegada" —participle of the verb to flood—) is an agrarian measure of area, quite variable depending on the region and even depending on the crops.

The stagnant, if it is barley, 48400 square feet, if it is wheat, 72600 square feet.... The Real Stadal of the territory of Madrid has 10 and a half tertia which is the same as 10 and a half feet: each hanegada 12 celemines; and every cellar 33 stadales, i one third, squares.

...

In Valencia it counts for hanegadas, cahizadas and yugadas. La hanegada consists of 200 square brazas or 16 200 square palmos. The cahized, of 6 hectares, that is, of 97 200 square pallets. The yugada consists of 6 cahizadas.

In Valencia, a hanegada is 831 square meters; equivalent to approximately one twelfth of a hectare, that is, 833.33 square meters.

In Extremadura, a fanega is equal to 6400 square meters.

In Castilla it is equivalent to 576 square states or 6459.6 square meters.

In the Canary Islands, a fanegada is 5,248 square meters.

In Colombia, the "fanegada", also called the "plaza" or "block" (it should not be confused with other meanings of "square" nor with the unit of length called "cuadra" —understood more or less between 100 and 150 m—), is an old unit of surface measurement used in surveying and is defined as the area of a square 100 varas on a side, or 10,000 square varas. It is equivalent to 6400 m² or 0.64 hectares. It is still widely used in Valle del Cauca.

Multiples and submultiples

In both cases, that is, as a measure of capacity and as a measure of surface area, the bushel unit is subdivided into bushels, bushels, rooms or pages. The equivalence varied according to the regions: in Castilla a fanega was worth 21 bushels while in Aragón or La Rioja (Spain) it was worth 12 bushels.

The unit superior to the fanega was the cahíz. In Aragon a cahíz was equivalent to 8 fanegas while in Castilla it was equivalent to 12 fanegas.

Etymological origin

As a measure of area, the word "fanega" comes from the Arabic faddãn, which refers to 'what a pair of oxen can plow in one day'. Its use spread widely throughout Spain and Latin America, until it was officially suppressed and replaced by the units of the metric system.

Although the fanega as a unit of capacity is practically in disuse, the fanega de tierra continues to be used as a reference unit, colloquially, in large rural areas, given that many parcels of land are still in force were performed using this standard of measurement.

Next to the bushel of land there was the bushel of the fist, also known as sowing bushel, which is the surface of soil that was sown with a bushel of wheat. Depending on the quality of the land, more or less "thick" that is, with more or less grain per surface unit. For this reason, there is a great difference between the surface area of the sowing bushel in different areas. Even within the same municipal term, the vega lands with a good production capacity were planted using more seed than in the páramo or the mountains. For example, in Pesquera de Duero (Valladolid) the vega bushels are a third of a hectare and those of the forest are almost half a ha.

Localisms

There were innumerable localisms so it is necessary to resort to the examples of equivalence given in different regions and counties:

• In Western Andalusia, as a surface unit, it was equivalent in the North to 6440, and in the South to approximately 6121 square metres. The term is still used in colloquial language.
• In Granada, a surface unit, equivalent to 4698.5 square metres. This measure may vary by area.
• In the Castilian province of Burgos, Spain, in the region of La Bureba, it was an area unit equivalent to 2000 square meters. That is, 5 crop field fans make 1 hectare.
• In the Castilian province of Burgos, Spain, in the region of Las Merindades, one hectare has 3 fans, then it is approximately 3333 square meters.
• In Villar de Cañas in Cuenca (Castilla-La Mancha, Spain), a surface unit equivalent to about 4400 square meters (2.25 fans per hectare).
• In the Mancha-Centro (Villarrobledo, Albacete), two types of fanegas are indistinctly decked: the "big harvest", of 7500 square meters; and the "girl harvest", or standard of 6440 square meters. This is explained because of the relative profitability existing for the fields of sowing in accepting a grano-simiente fanga (the 55,501 liters of capacity); so that in the wet and better fields it is customary to refer to the fanega Chica, and in the most arid the big fanega.
• In Galicia, Spain, surface unit, equivalent to 2103 square meters.
• In León, Spain, this measure is not used, but the hemin that is equivalent to 939,4133 m2 in the drylands and 626,2238 m2 in the regadío lands.
• In the Canary Islands (Spain), it corresponded to a land area equivalent to 5248 m2, needed to sow a wheat harvest equal to 62.6 l.
• In Burgos and Madrid (Spain), a fanega corresponds to 3,424 square meters.
• In Murcia, Spain, a fanega corresponds to 2,800 square meters.
• In Valencia, Spain, one fan. equals 833.33 square meters.
• In Fuentidueña de Tajo, Madrid, a fanega equals 3333 m2, or what is the same three fans are a hectare.
• In Porcuna (Jaén), a fanega equals 5707 m2.
• In Beegeejar, and Baeza, Jaen, a fanega equals the land surface that contains about 48-54 olive trees.
• In Escacena del Campo (Huelva), the fanega coincides exactly with the so-called "female harvest", that is, 4192,42 square meters.

The fanega was also used as a unit for commercial grain transactions. The price was fixed until the beginning of the XX century in reales per bushel and later in duros per bushel. In Campo de Peñafiel, it was not until the middle of the XX century that it began to operate in ptas/kg.