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Rain

In Bohemia, at least as early as the early 15ᵗʰ century – at least as late as the early 19ᵗʰ century, a possible unit of land area applied to land used for growing hops. Frank Gareis notes the occurrence of this unit in a book of about 1405, and in Saxony in 1815. The magnitude of the unit is unknown.

In German, “Rainen” means to fix the boundaries between fields, and a “Rain” is a ridge or bank separating fields. In a description of a group of fields, it might be easily possible to confuse an account of topography or a count of fields with a unit of land area (for example, does “this hop garden contains 4 Rainen” mean it contains four ridges, or four units of land area)? More information on instances of this word is needed.

1. Frank Gareis. www.genealogienetz.de/reg/SUD/bmasse.html D. Selig, editor. 28 February 2003.