A Hobbit of Oats

[Lalwendë]

Just a curious little thing I stumbled on to share with you.

I was looking at the British Newspaper Archive and in some of the old papers from Wales and Cheshire there are such curious lines as:

Originally Posted by Cheshire Observer, 1870

The hobbit was agreed upon, the barley to be de- livered at Mostyn station. The hobbits were to be sold by measure. Plaintiff, however, weighed one of the hobbits, and found it to be 1471bs.

It made me chuckle, but I decided to look this up and there's a decent Wikipedia entry about The Hobbit, a unit of weight which grains were sold by. Could this be another possible root for the word?

The article gives the following explanation and etymology:

The hobbit (also hobbett, hobbet, or hobed, from Welsh: hobaid) is a unit of volume or weight formerly used in Wales for trade in grain and other staples. It was equal to four pecks or two and a half bushels, but was also often used as a unit of weight, which varied depending on the material being measured. The hobbit remained in customary use in markets in northern Wales after Parliament standardized the Winchester bushel as the unit of measure for grain, after which courts gave inconsistent rulings as to its legal status.