THE WOODEN PLOUGH. 19 



made of wood, aud it had a Avooden mould-board, often roughly 

 plated over with pieces of 'old saw-plate, tin, or sheet-iron. 

 It had a clumsy wrought-iron share, while the handles were 

 upright, held in place by two wooden pins. It took a strong 

 man to hold it and about double the strength of team now 

 required to do the same amount of work. The "bar-share 

 plough," sometimes called the "bull plough," was also used. 

 A flat bar forming the land-side, with an immense clump of iron, 

 shaped like half a lance-head, into the upper part of which a 

 kind of colter was fastened, which served as a point. It had 

 a wooden mould-board fitted to the iron-work in the most 

 bungling manner. A sharp-pointed shovel, held with the 

 reverse side up, and drawn forward with the point in the 

 ground, would give an idea of its work. Then there was the 

 "shovel plough," in very general use in the middle and southern 

 colonies ; a roughly-hewn stick was used for a beam, and into 

 this another stick was framed, upon the end of which there 

 was a piece of iron, shaped a little like a sharp-pointed 

 shovel. The two rough handles were nailed or pinned to the 

 sides of the beam. A plougli^known as the "hog plough" was 

 also used in some parts of the country in the last and early 

 part of the present century, so called probably on account 

 of its rooting propensity. Specimens of this plough were 

 taken to Canada in 1808 for use there, which would seem that 

 it was thought to be one of the best ploughs then made. These 

 old forms of the wooden plough continued to be used with 

 little or no improvement till sometime after the beginning of 

 the present century. The wooden plough was liable to rapid 

 decay. 



As for most of the other implements of husbandry, they 

 were very few and very rude. The thrashing was done with 

 the flail. The winnowing was done by the wind. Slow and 

 laborious hand-labor for nearly all the processes of the farm 

 was the rule, and machine labor the exception, till a com- 

 paratively recent date. Indeed, it has been said that a strong 

 man could have carried on his shoulders all the implements 

 used on his farm, except, perhaps, the old wooden cart and 

 the harrow, previous to the beginning of the present century, 

 aud we know that the number as well as the variety of these 

 tools was extremely small. 



