Subsequent measurements revealed that the yard standard and its copies were shrinking at the rate of one part per million every twenty years due to the gradual release of strain incurred during the fabrication process. The international prototype meter, on the other hand, was comparatively stable. A measurement made in 1895 determined the length of the meter at inches relative to the imperial standard yard. The Weights and Measures (Metric) Act of 1897 in conjunction with Order in Council 411 (1898) made this relationship official. After 1898, the de facto legal definition of the yard came to be accepted as of a meter. The yard (known as the "international yard" in the United States) was legally defined to be exactly 0.9144 meter in 1959 under an agreement in 1959 between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the UK, the provisions of the treaty were ratified by the Weights and Measures Act of 1963. The Imperial Standard Yard of 1855 was renamed the United Kingdom Primary Standard Yard and retained its official status as the national prototype yard.Weights and Measures Act 1985 BAILY’S METAL. PARLIAMENTARY COPY (VI) OF THE IMPERIAL STANDARD YARD. 41 & 42 VICTORIA, CHAPTER 49. STANDARD YARD AT 62° FAHT. CAST IN 1878 Current use The yard is used as the standard unit of field-length measurement in American, Canadian and association football, cricket pitch dimensions, and in some countries, golf fairway measurements. There are corresponding units of area and volume, the square yard and cubic yard respectively. These are sometimes referred to simply as "yards" when no ambiguity is possible, for example an American or Canadian concrete mixer may be marked with a capacity of "9 yards" or "1.5 yards", where cubic yards are obviously referred to. Yards are also used and are the legal requirement on road signs for shorter distances in the United Kingdom, and are also frequently found in conversation between Britons much like in the United States for distance. Textiles and fat quarters The yard, subdivided into eighths, is used for the purchase of fabrics in the United States and United Kingdom and was previously used elsewhere. In the United States the term "fat quarter" is used for a piece of fabric which is half a yard in length cut from a roll and then cut again along the width so that it is only half