# Peter Piper, and pickling **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2005, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-piper-and-pickling/326965 "2005-10-19T19:28:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-piper-and-pickling/326965/21 "2005-10-21T01:12:50Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > And don’t even get me started on those wood-chucking woodchucks! 640 pounds. It was actually measured, by the mean amount of dirt chucked by a significant number of woodchucks, and the assumption that a woodchuck would chuck as much wood as it did dirt. (Where else would you get a straight answer to **that** question? I ask you!) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-piper-and-pickling/326965/22 "2005-10-21T01:31:31Z")
> [@lightingtool](#): > > … buying paprika by the peck could be particularly painful. Oh, come now! Can’t you play nice with the other kids? How hard would it be to write: “…purchasing paprika per the peck could prove particularly painful.”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-piper-and-pickling/326965/23 "2005-10-21T04:27:50Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > 640 pounds. It was actually measured, by the mean amount of dirt chucked by a significant number of woodchucks, and the assumption that a woodchuck would chuck as much wood as it did dirt. > > (Where else would you get a straight answer to **that** question? I ask you!) The Master speaks: [How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_083a.html) (although he gives the figure as 700 pounds). ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-piper-and-pickling/326965/24 "2005-10-21T06:44:03Z")
[Poire William](http://web.foodnetwork.com/food/web/encyclopedia/termdetail/0,7770,3522,00.html) is a potent potable produced from pears. Proficient pear-farmers place pristine bottles peripherally on the pullulating _poiriers_ (pear-trees), pruning to produce [“prisoner pears”](http://www.boissetamerica.com/downloads/spirits/bottleshots/Jean%20Danflou/La%20Captive%20Poire%20William%20300%20dpi.jpg). Perhaps Peter Piper places pots, packed with pickling-potion, proximate to his pepper-plants, pickling the peppers prior to picking. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-piper-and-pickling/326965/25 "2005-10-21T18:45:51Z")
> [@lightingtool](#): > > Ok. 1 US peck = 297.893694 fluid ounces, or about 2.32729448 gallons. \ 1 U.S. peck = 2.32729448 **U.S. liquid** gallons. By definition, 1 U.S. peck is exactly 2 U.S. **dry** gallons. And don’t get me started on Imperial pecks and gallons. (After all, there’s a good chance that Peter Piper was British.) \ ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-piper-and-pickling/326965/26 "2005-10-21T18:46:56Z")
> [@Antonius Block](#): > > Perhaps Peter Piper places pots, packed with pickling-potion, proximate to his pepper-plants, pickling the peppers prior to picking. Possible. ---
**Author:** ![Sleazar\_Crappanastos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ea924/32.png) [@Sleazar\_Crappanastos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleazar_Crappanastos)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2005, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-piper-and-pickling/326965/27 "2005-10-21T20:53:35Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The Master speaks: [How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_083a.html) (although he gives the figure as 700 pounds). I’m wondering what kind of dirt woodchucks chuck. Pumice, maybe? The link implies that 35 cubic feet of dirt weighs 700 lbs. At 20 pounds per cu. ft., thats about 1/3 the density of water. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-piper-and-pickling/326965.md?page=1)