Editing Hogshead (section)

==Varieties and standardisation==
[[File:Sugar-Hogsheads - Ten Views in the Island of Antigua (1823), plate X - BL.jpg|thumb|"Sugar hogsheads" from ''Ten Views in the Island of Antigua'', W. Clark, 1823, plate X.]]
A '''tobacco hogshead''' was used in British and American colonial times to transport and store tobacco. It was a very large wooden barrel. A standardized hogshead measured {{convert|48|in|m|2}} long and {{convert|30|in|cm|2}} in diameter at the head (at least {{convert|550|L|impgal USgal|0|abbr=on|disp=or}}, depending on the width in the middle). Fully packed with tobacco, it weighed about {{convert|1000|lb|kg|0}}{{Citation needed|date=April 2024|reason=This is stated in many secondary sources, but a good primary source is needed.}}.

A ''' hogshead''' in Britain contains about {{convert|300|L|impgal USgal|0|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.apjohn.com.au/Upload/PrintPages/AP%20John_Technical_Specifications.pdf | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110215212133/http://www.apjohn.com.au/Upload/PrintPages/AP%20John_Technical_Specifications.pdf | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2011-02-15 | title =AP John Technical Specifications}}</ref>

The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' (OED) notes that the hogshead was first standardized by an [[act of Parliament]] ([[2 Hen. 6]]. c. 14) in 1423, though the standards continued to vary by locality and content.  For example, the OED cites an 1897 edition of ''[[Whitaker's Almanack]]'', which specified the gallons of wine in a hogshead varying most particularly across fortified wines: [[claret]]/[[Madeira wine|Madeira]] {{convert|46|impgal|USgal L|0}}, [[Port wine|port]] {{convert|57|impgal|USgal L|0}}, [[sherry]] {{convert|54|impgal|USgal L|0}}. The ''[[American Heritage Dictionary]]'' claims that a hogshead can consist of anything from (presumably) {{convert|62.5|to|140|USgal|impgal L|0}}. A hogshead of [[Madeira wine]] was approximately equal to 45–48 gallons (0.205–0.218 m<sup>3</sup>). A hogshead of [[brandy]] was approximately equal to 56–61 gallons (0.255–0.277 m<sup>3</sup>).{{cn|date=May 2022}}

Eventually, a hogshead of [[wine]] came to be {{convert|52.5|impgal|L|6|lk=on}} (or 63 US gallons), while a hogshead of [[beer]] or [[ale]] came to be 54 gallons (249.54221 L with the pre-1824 beer and ale gallon, or 245.48886 L with the imperial gallon).

A hogshead was also used as unit of measurement for sugar in [[Louisiana]] for most of the 19th century. [[plantations in the American South|Plantation]]s were listed in sugar schedules by the number of hogsheads of sugar or molasses produced. Used for sugar in the 18th and 19th centuries in the British West Indies, a hogshead weighed on average 16 cwt / 813kg. A hogshead was also used for the measurement of [[herring]] fished for [[Sardine (food)|sardines]] in Blacks Harbour, [[New Brunswick]] and Cornwall.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0001617/18601205/057/0004?browse=true |title= |newspaper= |location= |page= |issue= |date= |url-access=subscription |via=[[British Newspaper Archive]]}}</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=May 2022}}