cántara

In Ifni and Spain, 20ᵗʰ century, a unit of capacity used for wine:

United Nations, 1966.
Technical Factors..., 1972, page 132.

Before 1801, the cántara was defined as the volume of 34 libras of water taken from the Tagus River as it flowed by Toledo.

The table below shows values in the mid-19th century of the cántara and cántaro in the parts of Spain that used them. A media cántara is half a cántara; that this distinction was made in the source probably indicates that that is the form in which the unit was actually used in that locality, so we have preserved it. The media arrobas for liquids have been added to show that these arrobas are essentially local equivalents to a media cántara. Notice that in many provinces the cántara was not used.

Province Name of unit Size,¹
liters
Alava cántara 16.365
Alicante cántaro 11.55
Ávila media cántara 7.96
Burgos media cántara 7.05
Castellón cántaro 11.27
Coruña cántara de vino 15.58
cántara de aguardiente 16.43
Huelva (used the media arroba for liquids, 
which was very close to values for 
the media cántara)
7.89
Huesca cántaro 9.98
Jaèn (used the media arroba for wine, 
very close to values for the media cántara)
8.02
León media cántara 7.92
Lèrida cántara, for wine 11.38
Logroño cántara 16.04
Madrid (media arroba for liquids) 8.15
Málaga (media arroba for liquids) 8.33
Murcia (media arroba for wine) 7.80
Navarra cántara 11.77
Orense cántara 15.96
Oviedo cántara 18.41
Palencia media cántara 7.88
Pontevedra (used the medio cañado for liquids) 16.35
Salamanca medio cántaro 7.99
Santander media cántara 7.90
Segóvia (media arroba for liquids) 8
Sevilla (arroba for liquids) 15.66
Soria media cántara 7.90
Teruel cántaro 10.66
Toledo media cántara 8.12
Valencia cántaro of wine 10.77
Valladolid media cántara 7.82
Zamora medio cántaro 7.98
Zaragoza cántaro of wine 9.91

1. Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico y Estadístico.
Equivalencias entre las Pesas y Medidas Usadas Antiguamente en las Diversas Provincias de España y las Legales del Sistema Métrico-Decimal.
Publicadas de Real Orden.
Madrid: Imprenta de la Dirección General del Instituto Geográfica y Estadístico, 1886.

examples

Two cantaras of water (21.28 quarts) are added....

Claude I. Dawson.
Curing and Packing Valencia Raisins.
U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce.
Daily Consular and Trade Reports.
Nos. 75-151; Volume 2; April, May and June 1913.
Washington: U.S.G.P.O., 1913.
Page 210. Report 85, April 12, 1913.

21.28 U.S. liquid quarts is about 20.14 liters. Whether the greater size is due to location, date or author error is unknown.

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