ACRE. 
mon acre was equal in area to two English acres. 
The acre in Scotland is equal to 1 acre, 1 rood, 
and nearly 2 perches of English measure ; and it 
comprises 4 roods, while each rood comprises 40 
square falls, each fall 36 square ells, and each ell 
9 square feet and 73 square inches. It is raised 
from the chain of 24 ells; and until of late years 
it was the practice of land-surveyors to measure 
with a chain of 74°4 feet in length; the ell having 
been erroneously estimated at 37°2 inches. Hence 
the Scots acre came to be about 6,150 square yards. 
The proportion of the Scots acre to the imperial 
acre is as 1:26118345 to 1. A Scots rood is equal 
to ‘31530 parts of an imperial acre ; and a Scots 
ell to (000219 parts. In Irish measure, 64 plan- 
tation acres are equal to 49 in forest measure ; 
625 plantation acres are equal to 784 Conyngham 
acres; 86 plantation acres are equal to 49 wood- 
land or Burleigh acres; 121 plantation acres are 
equal to 196 imperial acres; and 1,369 plan- 
tation acres are equal to 1,764 Scottish acres. 
Hence 1 plantation acre—or, par excellence, Irish 
acre—is equal to 3 roods and 25 perches of forest 
measure; to 1 acre, 1 rood, and seven-tenths of a 
perch of Conyngham measure; to | acre, 1 rood, 
6 perches, and one-tenth of a perch of Scottish 
measure; to 1 acre, 1 rood, 17 perches, and four- 
| fifths of a perch of woodland measure; and to 1 
| acre, 2 roods, 19 perches, and one-tenth of a 
perch of imperial measure. On the grounds al- 
ready stated also, 100 imperial acres are equal 
to 120 acres, 3 roods, and 20 perches of Devon- 
| shire measure; to 119 acres, 2 roods, 26 perches 
of the Isle of Purbeck measure; to 84 acres and 
4 perches of Cornish measure ; to 47 acres, 1 rood, 
and 2% perches of Cheshire and Staffordshire mea- 
sure; to 133 acres and 2 roods of Wiltshire ten- 
antry measure ; to 79 acres, 1 rood, and 64 perches 
of Scottish measure; and to 61 acres, 2 roods, 
and 374 perches of Lancashire or Irish plantation 
measure.—Surveyors, in measuring land, use a 
chain, 4 perches in length, and divided into 100 
equal parts called links; and they make their 
computations in chains and links, but exhibit 
the result in acres, roods, and perches,—10 square 
chains, or 100,000 square links constituting an 
acre. A square mile comprises 640 imperial 
acres; and a hide of land, mentioned by writers 
of former times, comprised 100 acres. The Stras- 
burg acre is equal to about one-half of an English 
acre; and the French acre, or arpent, comprises 
51,691 English square feet, and is therefore nearly 
ental to one English acre and three-fourths of 
an English rood. 
In 1820, the commissioners on weights and 
measures reported, that the following customary 
acres were in use throughout England: 
Bedfordshire: Sometimes 2 roods. 
Cheshire: Formerly, and still in some places, 
10,240 square yards. 
Cornwall : Sometimes one of the Welsh acres of 
5,760 yards. 
Dorsetshire. Generally 134 ie 
ADAM’S NEEDLE. 
Hampshire: From 107 to 120 perches, but some- 
times 180. 
Herefordshire: Two-thirds of a statute acre. 
of hops, about half an acre, containing 1,000 
plants. 
of wood, an acre and 2 or 256 perches. 
Leicestershire: 2,38083 square yards. 
Lincolnshire: 5 roods, particularly for copyheld 
land. 
Staffordshire: Nearly 23 acres. 
Sussex: 107, 110, 120, 130, or 2]2 perches. 
Short acre, 100 or 120 perches. 
Forest acre, 180 perches. 
Westmoreland: 6,760 square yards, or 160 perches 
of 63 yards square; in some parts the Irish acre 
is used. 
Worcestershire: Hop acre, 1,000 stocks, or 90 
perches; sometimes 132 or 141 perches. 
NV. Wales: Erw, or true acre, 4,320 square yards; 
stang, or customary acre, 3,240 square yards, 
as in Anglesey and Carnarvonshire, making 5} 
llathen = 160 perches W. of 4% yards square, 
called paladr ; 8 acres making an ox-land, and 8 
of these a plough-land, in Pembrokeshire. 
The term acre sometimes denotes a measure of 
length; and, in this sense also it varies considerably 
in different districts of England. Thus in 
Bedfordshire, t 
Buchinghamshire, yards. 
Derbyshire, 4 ‘* roods,” each of 7 or of 8 yards. 
Yorkshire, 28 yards. 
ACRE-DALE. A term sometimes met with in 
old Scottish deeds and writings, signifying lands 
in the neighbourhood of towns or villages which 
were let in small portions of about an acre in 
extent. 
ACREME. ‘Ten acres of land. 
ACRIMONY. A sharpness or extreme acidity | 
in numerous plants. This property is of very 
various kinds and degrees; and appears to be 
identified chiefly or perhaps wholly with acids 
and volatile oils. In some plants, as in the com- 
mon nettle, and in some of the mushrooms, it is 
so pungent as to excoriate or blister any part of | 
the body to which it is applied; and in others, 
as in several of the poisonous plants, it is, ina 
considerable degree, astringent and corrosive. 
In some, as in nettles, onions, and water-cresses, 
it is greatly modified by the culinary application | 
of heat ; and in others, as ginger, capsicum, and | 
pepper, it is rather stimulated than mollitied by 
the action of heat. 
plant be very well known, the presence of acri- 
mony in its juices ought to inculcate extreme | 
caution in using it. 
ACROSPIRE. The shoot or sprout from the 
end of grain seeds, when germinating under the 
malting process. See Maur. 
ADAM’S APPLE. The fruit of the plantain- 
tree, Musa paradisaica. 
ADAM’S NEEDLE,—hbotanically Yucca. 
very curious genus of tulipaceous, evergreen, ex- 
otic, garden shrubs. About twenty species, be- 
sides some varieties, have been introduced to 
Great Britain, principally from North America. 
The superb species, Yucca gloriosa, in both its 
form and its manner of HOTTER | Is a Sort of 
a chain of 4 poles, or 22 | 
Unless the nature of any | 
A | 
