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The "Taglia"
(it literally translates as the
"cut" ).
It was used to buy bread at the bakery.
It was a thin piece of wood, of cylindrical shape,
and it was divided in two.
On both pieces there was a symbol to show the
desired quantity of bread.
"X" indicated 10 Kg of bread, "/" 5 Kg, while "-"
meant 1 Kg.
The baker kept half of it
with a name written on it, the farmer kept the other half: at the end of the
month the baker counted the quantity of bread bought and the farmer paid the
amount due with corn.
In the end, the symbols
engraved in the piece of wood during the last month were erased using a knife
and the piece of wood could be used all over again for the same purpose.
The "Catarina"
Another old measuring
tool was the "catarina", which our ancestors used to measure the quantity of
milk.
It was a small wooden stick with different symbols
engraved on it:
The first was a small nick, it corresponded to half
a liter and it was called "nu tierz";
A second nick, slightly larger, was a liter and it
was called "mezza scutedra";
The third one, larger than the others, was 2 liters
and it was called "scutedra".
The milk container was
called "secchia" which translates in "bucket" and could contain up to 12 liters
of milk, which corresponded to 6 "scutedre".
Weight measurements for corn.
1 misura (measure)=2 Kg
1 mezzo quarto (half quarter)=3misure=6Kg
1 quarto (quarter)=1/2 mezzetto (small half)=6 misure=12 Kg
1 mezzetto=12 misure=24 Kg
1 tomolo=2 mezzetti= 24 misure= 48 Kg
The "canna" (which translates as cane)
Wood was measured in canes (it’s still used today).
It has a rectangular shape like a parallelepiped and its length is 4.24
meters, 1.08 meters wide and 1.08 meters tall.
A wood cane weighs about 2500 Kg = ¼ ton
The exact weight depends on the maturing of wood, in fact, when wood has just
been cut is heavier than the same quantity of dry wood.
The "tomolo"
Land was measured in "tomoli".
One tomolo of land corresponded to 4,000 square meters.
2 tomoli and a ½ of land were needed to form 1 hectare, 10,000 square meters,
The "ziro".
Our ancestors measured oil with a terracotta container called "ziro", it was
pot-bellied and the inside was enameled, its capacity was 1 decaliter= 10 liters.
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