Implements of the Farm. 35 



" twal owsen" plough was pretty common so late as 

 1792 ; and in exceptional cases it was in use a few 

 years after the commencement of the present century. 

 The late Dr. Cruickshank, of Marischal College, Aber- 

 deen, remembered seeing such a plough at work in the 

 parish of Culsalmond, so late as the autumn of 1807 ; 

 and it did not go finally out of use in this part of the 

 country till about 1815 or 1816. 



A specimen of this cumbrous implement used after 

 1784, by Mr. Stephen, tenant of Millden, Belhelvie, 

 was exhibited at the Aberdeen Show of the Highland 

 Society in 1858, when its uncouth appearance made it 

 an object of great interest and curiosity to those of 

 the living generation of farmers and ploughmen who 

 were present to inspect it. It was thereafter pre- 

 sented to the authorities of Marischal College by its 

 possessor, Mr. Craighead, presumably for preservation 

 in the Museum. No particular care would seem to 

 have been bestowed on the interesting relic (the only 

 remaining specimen of this particular kind of plough 

 so far as we are aware), until sometime ago it was 

 found to be literally crumbling into dust, and past all 

 hope of staying the progress of decay. 



The draught equipment was as primitive as the 

 plough itself. The "soam" already spoken of an 

 iron chain, fastened to the cheek-rack, or to a simple 

 staple fixed in the beam on the right hand side some 

 distance from the point ran along between the pairs 

 of oxen all the way to the "fore yoke."* A yoke lay 

 across the necks of each pair of oxen ; and a " bow," 

 consisting of a piece of ash, birch, or willow, bent to 

 the proper shape, surrounded every separate ox's neck. 

 The points of the bows were stuck upward through 



* The names of the six pairs of oxen as fully given in Dr. Pratt's 

 Buchan, with illustrative diagram, were foremost pair, on wyner, 

 and wyner ; second do. on-steer draught, and steer-draught ; 3d do. 

 fore-throck on land and fore-throck in fur ; 4th do. mid-throck on 

 land and mid-throck in fur ; 5th do. hind-throck on land, and hind- 

 throck in fur ; 6th pair, fit on land, and fit in fur. 



