Morgen

A morgen was a unit of measurement of land area in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania and the Dutch colonies, including New Netherland, South Africa, and Taiwan. The size of a morgen varies from 12 to 2+12 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 systemGerman customary units
Unit ofArea
SymbolMg
Named afterAmount 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. 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. A unit derived from the Dutch morgen is still used in Taiwan today, called "kah"; 1 kah is roughly 2 acres (8,100 m2).[2]

Germany

The following table shows an excerpt of morgen sizes as used in Germany — some morgen were used in a wider area and thus had proper names. The actual area of a morgen was considerably larger in fertile areas of Germany, or in regions where flat terrain prevails, presumably facilitating tilling. The next lower measurement unit to a morgen was usually in "Quadratruten" square rods.

German sizes of morgen
Region (Timespan)NameSize in m²original definition (QR = Quadratruten)
- metric -Viertelhektar = vha 2,500(100 QR)
Homburg 1,906160 QR
Franconia 2,000
FrankfurtFeldmorgen 2,025160 QFeldR
Oldenburg 2,256
KasselAcker 2,386150 QR
Prussia (1816–1869)Magdeburger Morgen 2,553.22180 QR
Waldeck-Pyrmont
Bremen 2,572120 QR
Schaumburg 2,585120 QR
Hanover (before 1836) 2,608120 QR
Hanover (after 1836) 2,621120 QR
Cologne RhinelandRheinländischer Morgen 3,176150 QR
Bergisches LandBergischer Morgen 2,132120 QR
Württemberg (1806–1871) 3,152384 QR
FrankfurtWaldmorgen 3,256160 QWaldR
BraunschweigWaldmorgen 3,335160 QR
BavariaTagwerk 3,407400 QR
Baden 3,600400 QR
OldenburgJück 4,538160 QR
Danzig ca. 5,000300 QR
HolsteinTonne (Tønde) 5,046240 QGeestR
Schleswig-HolsteinSteuertonne 5,466260 QGeestR
Kulmischer Morgen 5,601.17300 QR
East FrisiaDiemat (h) 5,674
Mecklenburg 6,500300 QR
Altes Land (Harburg & Stade) 8,185
Hamburg 9,658600 QGR
KehdingenMarschmorgen 10,477
Altes Land 10,484480 QR
Land of Hadeln 11,780540 QR

Poland

The Polish terms for the unit were morga, mórg, jutrzyna, the latter being a near-literal translation into old Polish.

Comparison of Area units in Lesser Poland 1791-1876, 1 Franconian morg = 1 wiener morg (system morgi dolnoaustriackiej)
UnitMiara(Unit)Sążeń², (Viennese fathom²)Łokieć² (Viennese ell²)
1 morg (morgen) (= 0.5755 ha) 3 1,600 6,439.02 5,754.64
1 miara (Unit) (= 19.18 are) 533.33 2,929.07 1,918
1 sążeń² wiedeński (Viennese fathom) 4.0237 3.6
1 łokieć² wiedeński (Viennese el²) 0.9

Austria–Hungary

The term "morgen" was used in the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria where 1 morgen was equal to 23 acre (2,700 m2).[3]

South Africa

Until the advent of metrication in the 1970s, the morgen was the legal unit of measure of land in three of the four pre-1995 South African provinces – the Cape Province, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. In November 2007 the South African Law Society published a conversion factor of 1 morgen = 0.856 532 hectares to be used "for the conversion of areas from imperial units to metric, particularly when preparing consolidated diagrams by compilation".[4]

See also

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Morgen". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 836.

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