IMPLEMENTS USED IN CULTIVATING THE SOIL. 535 



4. The plough-head, which is fixed with the skeath and the 

 hale, all at one instant, in two several mortise holes; a flat 

 piece of timber, about three feet in length, seven inches in 

 breadth, and two and a half in thickness, and having two nicks 

 towards the head of the plough. 



5. The plough spindles, two round pieces of wood which 

 couple the hales together. 



6. The right-hand hale, through which the other end of the 

 spindles run, much more slender than the left-hand hale 

 because no force is put on it. 



7. The plough-rest, a small piece of wood, fixed at one end 

 in the further nick of the plough-head, and on the other end to 

 the right-hand hale. In the Middle Ages it appears that this 

 part was made of iron, and that it was occasionally double. 

 (See vol. ii. p. 499. iii.) 



8. The shelboard, a board of more than an inch thick, 

 covering the right side of the plough, and fastened with two 

 strong wooden pins to the skeath and right-hand hale. 



9. The coulter, a long piece of iron made sharp at one end, 

 passing on one side by a mortise hole through the beam, and 

 held in place by an iron ring which winds round the beam and 

 strengthens it. 



10. The share. If this be needed for a mixed earth it is 

 made without a wing, or with a small one only ; if, however, 

 it be needed for a deep or stiff clay, it should be made with a 

 large wing or an outer point. 



11. The plough-foot. This is an iron implement, passed 

 through a mortise hole, and fastened at the farther end of the 

 beam by a wedge or two, so that the husbandman may at his 

 discretion set it higher or lower; the use being to give the 

 plough earth or put it from the earth, for the more it is driven 

 downward the more it raises the beam from the ground and 

 makes the irons forsake the earth, and the more it is driven 

 upward the more it lets down the beam and makes the irons bite 

 the ground." These details are accompanied in Markham's 

 work by rude woodcuts illustrating the several parts described. 



