Dry Measure

Dry Measure

Dry measures are units of volume used to measure bulk commodities which are not gas or liquid. They are typically used in agriculture, agronomy, and commodity markets to measure grain, dried beans, and dried and fresh fruit (e.g. a peck of apples is a retail unit); formerly also salt pork and fish. They are also used in fishing for clams, crabs, etc. and formerly for many other substances (e.g. coal, cement, lime) which were typically shipped and delivered in a standardized container such as a barrel.

They are often confused or conflated with units of mass, assuming a nominal density, and indeed many units nominally of dry measure have become standardized as units of mass (see bushel).