10 SKETCHES OP RURAL AFFAIRS. 



edges shod with iron. These ploughs are drawn by a 

 single horse, by two asses, or by oxen, or buffaloes, ac- 

 cording to the quality of the soil. 



In some parts of Poland, ploughing operations are 

 still conducted in the rudest and most awkward man- 

 ner. The peasant is his own plough-maker and wheel- 

 wright, and often produces a wretched implement, 

 which does scarcely more than scratch up the surface of 

 the land. In that country ploughing has been wit- 

 nessed, performed by a cow, tied by the horns to the 

 trunk of a young fir-tree, one of the roots of which 

 had been sharpened to serve as a share, while the other 

 served the ploughman as a handle. 



Thus has ploughing, in many countries, remained for 

 ages in the same rude state, without any visible im- 

 provement in the implements, or the mode of using 

 them. Very different has been the case in our own 

 land. Our plough was indeed in early times as rude as 

 theirs : and no wonder, for every ploughman was com- 

 pelled by law to make his own plough. No one was 

 allowed to guide a plough until he coiild make one, nor 

 was a driver permitted to urge forward the oxen unless 

 he was able to make the traces by which they were 

 attached to the plough. These traces were made of 

 twisted withes or willow-branches, and the names given 

 to them are still retained among labouring men to dis- 

 tinguish parts of the cart harness,, as wambtye, whipple- 

 tree and tail-withes. The plough itself was of very 

 simple form, but sometimes furnished with wheels. Our 

 Saxon forefathers seem on some occasions to have 

 adopted the barbarous practice of fastening the oxen to 

 the plough by their tails. This cruel custom was also 

 so common at one time in Ireland that the legislature 

 was obliged to interfere to put a stop to it. An act 

 was passed in the year 1634 against "Plowing by the 

 Tayle and pulling the wool off living sheep." It is 

 stated that "in many places of this kingdome there hath 

 been a long time used a barbarous custome of ploughing, 



