juchart

   or juchert

   a traditional unit of land area in southern Germany and German-speaking Switzerland. Like the Austrian joch and the French journal (see above), the juchart represents an area that could be plowed in a day by a yoke of oxen. The juchart varied considerably from place to place, but often it was about 4000 square meters, very close to the size of the English acre. In Bavaria, the juchart was standardized early in the nineteenth century at 3407.27 square meters (0.8420 acre). In Switzerland, after the introduction of the metric system in the mid nineteenth century, the juchart was generally understood to equal 3600 square meters (0.8896 acre). The joch, the journal, and the juchart are ultimately derived from a Roman unit, the jugerum, which was smaller, about 2500 square meters. The unit is also called the tagwerk ("day's work").