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Gras

A unit of land area in the duchy of Oldenburg, later Lower Saxony, ? – 1950s², = 2/3 Matt, but varying locally with variations in the size of the Matt. The word means “grass”; in concept it is the amount of land necessary to keep a cow, and, as occurs with seed measures, the unit’s magnitude varied with the quality of the land.

According to the law gazette of 16 July 1869¹ (upon the formation of the Norddeutschen Bund):

Jeversches old Gras, about 3514 square meters.
Jeversches new Gras, about 3152 square meters.
Kniphauser old Gras, about 3618.33 square meters.
Kniphauser new Gras, about 2931 square meters.

A more recent source gives 4255.4 square meters.²

1. Values given in an announcement of 1871 reproduced in facsimile in
Wolfgang Hase and Gerd Dethlefs.
Damit mußsten sie rechnen...auch auf dem Lande. Zur Alltagsgeschichte des Rechnens mit Münze, Mass und Gewicht.
Cloppenburg: Museumsdorf Cloppenburg, 1994.

Page 89.

2.
Christof Stöver.
Maße und Gewichte in alter Zeit.
Ostfreesland-Kalendar 1986, page 135ff.

Available on the internet at www.rhaude.de/napoleon/mititaer/masse.htm