Historical Nonfiction

English farmers would measure the area of their land based on how much their animals could plough. Originally, an acre was defined as the maximum area that could be ploughed by an ox in a single day, roughly 4047 square metros. An oxgate was the area an ox could be expected to plough over a whole year, equal to 15 acres. A virgate was the area two oxen could plough over a year, 30 acres. A carucate was the area eight oxen could plough over a year, 120 acres. A furlong, which was a unit of distance rather than area, was a contraction of ‘one plough’s furrow long’ and was how far oxen could plough at a time. 1 furlong is slightly over 200m. And this all sounds ridiculous until you remember that “feet” and “inches” don’t have such logical explanations.