Page 40 - All About History - Issue 54-17

Through History

FARM AND

GARDEN TOOLS

From the simple spade to the combine harvester, the use of tools for

cultivating the land stretches back thousands of years

This mattock head was made from an ox bone
and was found at Skara Brae in Orkney. It was SICKLE CIRCA 2300 BCE
used between 3100 and 2400 BCE
Once humans began to use metal to make tools, they were able to
make implements such as sickles. These curved blades were the
earliest tools utilised for harvesting grain crops like corn and were also
used for cutting hay. Specimens have been found dating back to the
Bronze Age, and they were in common use until the 19th century. The
reaper would hold a bundle of corn in one hand, then curve the blade Medieval stained glass window
towards it and slice off the top. depicting a woman using a sickle to
harvest grains, c.1450-75

PLOUGH CIRCA 2000 BCE
The primitive plough evolved from
THE MATTOCK the handheld hoe, tilling the soil so
CIRCA 5800 BCE that seed could be sown. Originally
made of wood, they made an open
The earliest agricultural implements were furrow by pushing the soil to either
made of wood, bone, horn or flint. If the side and were pulled by oxen, bullocks
humble digging stick was probably the first or camels. The Greeks added wheels,
tool used for cultivation, the mattock was quite which gave greater control, and later
likely to be the second. It is a versatile hand ploughs had a coulter, or vertical cutter,
tool with a dual-purpose head — one end sharp a share, a wedge-shaped cutter and a
like a pick, the other with a large horizontal Jethro mouldboard that turned the soil.
blade. It can chop into the ground and then The word ‘plough’ is thought to derive Tull The basic design of the plough
the area of land that could be ploughed
loosen the soil, so can be used for digging, from the Old English ‘ploh’, referring to ENGLISH 1674-1741 did not change until the 17th
clearing, planting and weeding. A rudimentary by a yoke of oxen in one day Jethro Tull observed different century, and it wasn’t until
antler mattock was discovered in Yorkshire farming techniques while travelling in the 18th century that the
was probably
dating back to 8000 BCE and was probably Europe and experimented with designs familiar cast-iron version
for a seed drill. Seed was placed in a
used for grubbing up roots. SEED DRILL CIRCA 1714 hopper and travelled down a cylinder made its appearance.
Prior to the invention of the into a funnel. A plough at the front
s seed dr rill, seeds were carved a furrow into which the seed Early versions of the seed drill
fell. His first version came out in
s sown 1701 and was perfected were pushed by hand,though
n by hand — either
SCYTHE CIRCA 500 BCE br oadcast across a field in 1714. Tull eventually developed a
horse-drawn version
The scythe is a long-handled or sprinkled into furrows.
The trouble
tool that was used for cutting hay Th l with this method is
not spaced evenly so
and later other crops. It represente h that seeds are n
ed
h one another for space
an advance on the sickle as it was s may compete with
while l
l ge gaps where weeds
more efficient and easier to handle. e. wh l leaving larg
h
Scythes were used by the Romans s who coul ld grow. Mec chanisation, by means
haps
introduced them to Britain — perh p of of a seed drill, allowed greater control
h
y
in order to cut fodder for their cav valry o over the proc cess and meant that
horses — but they only became wi idely less seed wa as wasted. The first
ly
adopted from around the 12th cen ntury. seed drills
y
ll appeared in Europe in
They continued to be used even a after the th the 1560s s, but the design was
introduction of tractors, clearing m meadows ref in England by Jethro
r fined i
in advance of the machinery, rathe er like Tull in the early
The British scythe-making
you might use a strimmer today. industry developed in Sheffield 18th century.
in the 17th and 18th centuries
40