The larger volumes of the dry measures apparently arose because they were based on heaped rather than "struck" (leveled) containers.
Many of the units are associated with particular goods, so for instance the dry hogshead has been used for sugar and for tobacco, and the peck for apples.
There are also special measures for specific goods, such as the cord of wood, the sack, the bale of wool or cotton, the box of fruit, etc.
Because it is difficult to measure actual volume and easy to measure mass, many of these units are now also defined as units of mass, specific to each commodity, so a bushel of apples is a different weight from a bushel of wheat (weighed at a specific moisture level).
Rules outlawing this practice were circumvented through use of heavy round strickles, which would compress the contents of a bushel.