AGRICULTURAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 91 



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only because of the stumps but because the plows 

 were crude, heavy and inefficient. A few wooden 

 moldboards were still in use when I first reached 

 up to those handles which were all too short and 

 too high even for men. Why plow makers per- 

 sisted for half a century in so wooding the plows 

 as to give the short end of the lever to the plowman 

 and the long one to the horses, I could never under- 

 stand, unless it was to permit of throwing the plow 

 in behind the stumps quickly as it passed them. 

 There was certainly no excuse for setting the han- 

 dles so high that they were certain to hit the plow- 

 boy in the ribs if the plowshare received a side- 

 thrust. Cast plows superseded those made of wood 

 chiefly, or by the blacksmith of wrought iron, but 

 they were heavy unpolished implements and in 

 many respects violated the principles of plow con- 

 struction as we now know them. They were hard 

 to hold when going ahead and harder to pull back 

 when they struck their noses under a network of 

 roots. In some respects they were not as good as 

 the more primitive peacock plow, for it was pro- 

 vided with a lock-colter so that it could not get its 

 nose fast under the roots and it was also lighter to 

 handle. 



Harrows, or, more accurately, drags, were at 

 first made from the symmetrical crotches of trees 



