Acre.

Acre. The word (from A.S. æcer) is identical with Gothic akr-s, Ger. acker ('a cultivated field'), Lat. ager, Gr. agros, Sansk. ajras. Most nations have, or had, some measure nearly corresponding; originally, perhaps, the quantity which one plough could plough in a day.

The English statute acre consists of 4840 sq. yards. The chain with which land is measured is 22 yards long, and a square chain will contain $22\; \backslash times\; 22$, or 484 yards; so that 10 sq. chains make an acre. The acre is divided into 4 roods, a rood into 40 perches, and a perch contains $30\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ sq. yards. The old Scotch acre is larger than the English, and the Irish than the Scotch. 23 Scotch acres = 29 imperial acres; $30\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ Irish acres = 49 imperial acres. The hectare of the French metric system has on the Continent superseded almost all the ancient local measures corresponding to the acre—such as the Prussian morgen.