A HUNDRED YEARS' PROGRESS. 279 



more tliau a local reputation duriug the last ceutury was tbat known as 

 the" Carey plow." It was more extensively used than any other, though 

 its particular forin varied very much according to the skill of each 

 blacksmith or wheelwright who made it. The land-side and the standard 

 were made of wood, and it had a wooden mold-board, often roughly plated 

 over with pieces of old saw-plate, tin, or sheet-iron. It had a clumsy 

 wrought-iron share, while the handles were upright, held in place bj' 

 two wooden pins. It took a strong man to hold it, and about double the 

 s'trength of team now required to do the same amount of work. The 

 "bar-share plow,*' sometimes called the " bull-plow,"' was also used. 

 A flat bar forming the laud-side, with an immense clump of iron, shaped 

 like half of a lance-head, into the upper part of which a kind of colter 

 was fastened, which served as a point. It had a wooden mold-board 

 fitted to the iron-work in the most bungling manner. A sharp-pointed 

 shovel, held with the reverse side up, and drawn forward with the point 

 in the ground, w^ould give an idea of its work. Then there was the 

 " shovel- plow," in very general use in the middle and southern colonies, 

 a roug'hly hewn stick was used for a beam, and into this another stick 

 was framed, upon the end of which there was a piece of iron, shaped a 

 little like a sharp-pointed shovel. The two rough handles were nailed 

 or pinned to the sides of the beam. A plow known as the " hog-plow" 

 was also used in some parts of the country in the last and the early 

 part of the present century, so called probably on account of its rooting 

 propensity. Specimens of this plow were taken to Canada in 1808 for 

 use there, vrhich would seem to indicate that it was thought to be one 

 of the best plows then made. These old forms of the wooden plow con- 

 tinued to be used vtith little or no improvement till some time atter the 

 beginning of the present century. The wooden plow was liable to 

 rapid decay. As for the other implements of husbandry, they were 

 very few aiul very rude. The thrashing was done with the flail. The 

 winnowing was done by the wind. Slow and laborious hand-labor for 

 nearly all the processes of the farm was the rule, and machine-labor the 

 exception, till a comparatively recent date. Indeed, it has been said 

 that a strong man could have carried on his shoulders all the imple- 

 ments used on his farm, except, perhaps, the old wooden cart and the 

 harrow, previous to the beginning of the present century, and we know 

 that the number as well as the variety of these tools was extremely 

 small. 



Of the crops raised by the early settlers, and upon which they relied chief- 

 ly for sustenance, Indian corn, immpkins, squashes, potatoes, and tobacco 

 were mostly new to them . Few Europeans had ever seen them cultivated 

 previous to their arrival here, but necessity soon showed their value and 

 from the Indians they learned how to grow them. It was a method fol- 

 lowed with little change dov>'n to the openiug of the present century. 

 It was to dig small holes in the ground about four feet apart, put in a 

 lisli or two, drop the seed, four or six kernels of corn, and cover it up. 

 The instrument used by the Indians for this purpose was made of a large 

 clam-shell, but the colonists soon substituted the heavy mattock or grub- 

 hoe. The James River settlers, under the tuition of the Indians, began 

 to raise corn in IGOS, and within three years after they appear to have 

 had as many as thirty acres under cultivation. The pilgrims found it 

 in cultivation by the Indians on their arrival at Plymouth, and began its 

 culture in 1G21, manuring, as the Indians did, with alewives, then called 

 "shads." An early chronicle of the Pilgrim's says, "According to the 

 manner of the Indians, we manured our ground with herrings, or rather 

 shads, which we have in great abundance and take with great ease at 



