14 



Report on Trials of Plows. 



Fig. 12 is taken from an old Saxon calendar, preserved in the 

 Cotton manuscripts of the eleventh century, and used in the time 

 of William the Conqueror. It was drawn by four oxen, and fast- 

 ened to them by ropes made of twisted willows, and sometimes 



by the skins of whales. It consists of a simple wooden wedge 

 covered with straps of iron, one side being placed parallel to 

 the line of the plow's direction, the other sweeping over to 

 the left hand, clearing it from its own path, and leaving an unob- 

 structed furrow for the next slice. A coulter, not unlike those 

 now in use, is inserted in the beam, and a wheel is placed in front 

 to regulate tlie depth. 



We have met with nothing previous to this plate which shows 

 a real coulter, or that which we now call by that name. Virgil's 

 plow had none, nor were any of the Italian plows provided with 

 one in TuU's day. 



ft will be seen from the two last illustrations that the idea of 

 a wedge form for a plow had begun to dawn upon men's minds; 

 some using the wedge acting vertically, others laterally; but they 



existed in the nn'nds of plowmakers in too vague and misty a form 

 to be of much pi-actical benefit. No one had as yet grasped the 

 idea of conil)ining the two wedges in the same implement, nor 

 had they any i(l(>a of the curves by which tliis could l)e effected. 



