Morgen
Unit of area / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A morgen was a unit of measurement of land area in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania and parts of the Dutch Overseas Empire, such as South Africa. The size of a morgen varies from 1⁄2 to 2+1⁄2 acres (2,000 to 10,100 m2). It was also used in Old Prussia, in the Balkans, Norway and Denmark, where it was equal to about two-thirds acre (2,700 m2).
Morgen | |
---|---|
Unit system | German customary units |
Unit of | Area |
Symbol | Mg |
Named after | Amount of land tillable in the morning hours of a day by one person behind an ox or horse dragging a single bladed plough |
Conversions | |
1 Mg in ... | ... is equal to ... |
SI base units | 2,500 m2 |
Imperial unit system | 2,990 sq yd |
The word is identical with the German and Dutch word for "morning" because, similarly to the Imperial acre, it denoted the acreage that could be furrowed in a morning's time by a man behind an ox or horse dragging a single-bladed plough.[citation needed] The morgen was commonly set at about 60–70% of the tagwerk (German for "day work") that referred to a full day of ploughing. In 1869, the North German Confederation fixed the morgen at a one-quarter hectare (2,500 m2),[1] but in modern times most farmland work is measured in full hectares. The next lower measurement unit was the German "rute" or Imperial rod, but the metric rod length of 5 metres (16 ft) never became popular.