| which the drains are filled with bushes. 
082 BURWEED. 
BURWEED,—botanically Yanthiwm. A genus 
of hardy annual plants, of the ambrosia division 
of the composite tribe. The small burdock, 
Xanthium strumarium, is occasionally found on 
dunghills and pieces of very rich moist ground, 
in the south of England. Its root is fibrous; its 
stem is solitary, erect, branched, leafy, coarse, 
shrubby, and about three feet high; its leaves 
are heart-shaped, and stand on long footstalks ; 
and its flowers are green and inconspicuous, and 
appear in July and September. This plant was 
formerly used as an antiscorbutic, but has totally 
lost its medicinal reputation. Six species—three 
of them interesting to the botanist, though use- 
less to the economist—have been introduced 
from other countries. Some one of the species 
| was used by the Greeks to produce a yellow dye; 
and from this circumstance arose the generic 
name Xanthium. 
BUSH. A shrub, or a mass of shrubby plants, 
or a thicket; also, the box of the nave of a wheel. 
BUSH-DRAINING. A kind of draining in 
See 
DRAINING. 
BUSHEL. A measure of capacity for grain, 
pulse, fruit, and many other kinds of dry goods; 
and particularly the ruling or basis measure of 
all corn. The standard or legal bushel in Eng- 
land, from the time of Henry VII. till the year 
1826, was the Winchester bushel; and, by act of 
parliament passed in 1697, a Winchester bushel 
was required to be a round vessel, with a plain 
and even bottom, 8 inches in depth and I8} 
inches in diameter, and, in consequence, to have 
a capacity of 2150°42 cubic inches. This bushel, 
like the imperial one now in use, contains four 
pecks or eight gallons, and is the eighth part of 
a quarter, or fortieth part of a load. 
‘But besides the Winchester or legal bushel, 
several bushels of different dimensions were in 
use within certain districts, and still occasion- 
ally make a figure in the statistics of dry mea- 
sure. The Abingdon and Andover bushel for 
all corn and pulse contains 9 gallons; the Pen- 
rith and Appleby bushel for wheat, rye, and 
pease, contains 16 gallons; the Penrith and 
Appleby bushel for oats, barley, bere malt, 
and mixed malt, contains 20 gallons; the Car- 
lisle bushel for all grain and pulse contains 
24 gallons; the Chester bushel for wheat, rye, 
and some other produce, contains 32 gallons; the 
Chester bushel for oats contains 40 gallons; the 
Dorchester bushel for oats and malt contains 10 
gallons; the Kingston-upon-Thames bushel con- 
tains 8} gallons; the Reading and Wycombe 
bushel contains 8? gallons; the Stamford bushel 
contains 16 gallons; and the Falmouth bushel 
contains, for different articles, variously 16, 20, 
and 21 gallons. The legal coal bushel, appointed 
by statute of 13 and 14 William III. cap. 5, to 
be used in London, Westminster, and every place 
within ten miles of these cities, and generally 
used throughout England previous to 1826, con- | 
BUSHEL. 
tained one Winchester bushel and one quart of 
water, or 2217°62 cubic inches, and was made 
round, with an even bottom, and 194 inches in 
diameter; and, as it was ordained to be heaped 
up in the form of a cone, 6 inches above the 
brim, it gave a space for the coals of 28149 cu- 
bic inches. An act of Henry VII. required each 
of the eight gallons of the legal or Winchester 
bushel of wheat to weigh 8 pounds troy, the 
pound weighing 12 ounces, the ounce 20 ster- 
lings, and the sterling 32 grains. 
The act of Weights and Measures, 5 George 
IV., cap. 74, declared the imperial gallon to be 
the standard measure of capacity, and appointed 
the level bushel of eight imperial gallons to be 
the ruling measure of corn and similar articles, 
and the bushel of eight imperial gallons, heaped 
up in the form of a cone to the height above the 
rim of at least three-fourths of its depth, to be 
the ruling measure of coals, culm, lime, potatoes, 
fruit, fish, and all other dry goods usually sold 
by heaped measure. But by act 4 and 5 William 
IV., cap. 49, which came into practice on the Ist 
of January 1835, the heaped bushel was abol- 
ished. The standard imperial gallon contains 10 
avoirdupois pounds of distilled water, weighed 
in common air of 62° Fahrenheit, the barometer 
standing at 30; or it contains 277:274 or a mi- 
nute fraction more than 277; cubic inches. The | 
imperial bushel, therefore, contains 80 lbs. of | 
distilled water, or 2218'192 cubic inches; and is 
to the old legal or Winchester bushel as 1 to 
‘969447. A general table of the subdivisions and 
multiples of this bushel may be stated thus :— 
4 gills = | pint, containing 343 cubic inches. | 
2 pints —— quate ce 
4 quarts =1 gallon, — Die cas) oe 
2) gallons) =="1 peck, + == 0042 ie 
4 pecks == 1 bushel, — 22192 ae 
8 bushels = 1 quarter, — 104 cubic feet. 
5 quarters = | load, ds sli — — 
One imperial bushel of fine wheat will weigh | 
63 lbs.; but inferior sorts will not exceed 53 lbs. | 
Five | 
such bushels make a sack = 300 lbs.; Eight such | | 
The average weight is rated at 60 Ibs, 
a quarter = 480 lbs.; Forty such, or 5 quarters = 
2400 Ibs. = 15169 ton. Fine oats will weigh 42 
Ibs., ordinary, only 36 lbs. per imperial bushel. 
Fine barley weighs 56 lbs.; good 52 lbs.; and or- 
dinary, 48 lbs. per imperial bushel. A bushel of 
American Indian corn weighs 56 lbs.; and five 
such, or 280 lbs. form a sack; but the average 
weight of European Indian corn is 60 lbs. per 
imperial bushel. 
“Merchants,” says Mr. Stephens, “know the 
weight of grain by its appearance and feel, and 
therefore, by trying the weight of a 4-bushel sack, 
they can easily ascertain whether the grain is in 
as clean a state throughout the whole bag as at 
its mouth. But the introduction of the weight 
has given rise to a species of deceitful dealing as 
regards the public. The purchaser offers a cer- 
tain price for every so many pounds weight of 
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