Implements of the Farm. 37 



length," we are told, were " sold ready made under 

 the name of fir tethers " ; and, it is added, " when no 

 longer fit to be used as a tether, they are employed as 

 candle fir." For tethering purposes there was also 

 the home made hair rope, the materials of which were 

 supplied from the tails of the cattle. 



It is not to be supposed that either the fir or " rash en" 

 traces were capable of sustaining very great tension ; 

 and they were the less severely tried from the fact that 

 the horses were small, potbellied, ill-fed, and conse- 

 quently rather pithless animals. One is not so sure 

 about even the soam, by which the whole eight, ten, or 

 twelve oxen hung on. At any rate the story told of 

 a certain smith, would seem to indicate that his 

 notion of the strain which the welded links 

 ought to be capable of bearing, had not been very 

 enlarged. He had just mended a break in the soam 

 from the Mains farm, and the " herd loon " took his 

 way home therewith from the smiddy. Tired of other 

 modes of conveying his rather onerous burden, the 

 herd took to dragging it after him, when, unluckily 

 the soam snapped again. On being told of this fresh 

 disaster, and discovering the ordeal to which the soam 

 had been subjected by the herd, the smith exclaimed 

 " Sorra set ye laddie, fat need ye 'a trail' t it !" 



The style of work accomplished by the great wooden 

 plough has been already spoken of. The furrow 

 opened was large and uncouth; and in their wide 

 way of talking, the old fellows spoke of the plough- 

 man occasionally turning down a refractory bit, which 

 the rude mould board had failed to lay over " wi' the 

 tap o's shooder." The " rigs" they made were crooked 

 like an elongated S ; and from the practice of " feer- 

 ing" always in the crown of the rig and " gathering " 

 to the same point, the tendency was to pile up the 

 ploughed land in a series of long narrow mounds. 

 And thus it was that when the principle of straight 

 furrows, and level rigs began to have place, the laird 



