236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tached, which were managed by two other men, one on 

 each. The share was simply a stick which projected into 

 the ground, through which pegs were driven, so that the 

 men could assist with their feet in forcing the point into the 

 ground, as well as use the handles. When it was desired to 

 raise the point from the ground somewhat, the leaders of the 

 team slipped back under the beam, raising the point, and 

 therefore lifting the share out of the ground, on the princi- 

 ple of the lever. 



The first record of a team of animals used in the operation 

 of plowing comes later, on Theban tombs. There I believe 

 the plow was essentially in the same form, but it seems that 

 when they began to use cattle for drawing it they considered 

 one handle as sufficient, and the person who guided the plow 

 with one hand sometimes sowed the grain with the other. 

 Some of their representations indicate that the sower of the 

 seed preceded the cattle, sowed in advance of them, and the 

 plow was used largely for covering the seed. Other repre- 

 sentations give us a third person, whose duty it seemed to be 

 to make noises and gesticulations, which have been interpreted 

 as intended (and that is indicated also by engravings) to 

 scare away birds and distract their attention, so that they 

 should not see that seed was being put into the ground. 

 Here again, with the oxen, the beam was long, projecting 

 above their heads, and lashed to a plain stick, that in turn 

 was fastened across in front of the horns of the cattle. The 

 plow itself at that time appears not to have been changed in 

 form. It was of wood and the share a forked stick. From 

 that time there was little change or luodification for a long 

 series of years. Two handles were substituted for one, and 

 the share itself appears to have been changed somewhat in 

 form, applying the principle of the wedge ; but except in the 

 recognition of the lever in the construction of the plow itself, 

 there seems to have been no essential change. This application 

 of the wedge in"raising the earth, making a chisel edge of the 

 share, so that it simply raised the earth vertically, upon the 

 principle of the wedge, appears to have been the second ap- 

 plication of mechanics to agricultural implements. In this 

 form, which dates back to between 1,700 and 1,800 years be- 

 fore Christ, the plow comes down to the time when we get 



