26. I. R. says—“In Cambridge-shiere, Huntington-shiere, Bedford-shiere, and for the most part of Northamton-shiere, theyr Ploughes haue but one hale. In Leister-shiere, Lankishiere, Yorkshiere, Lincolnshiere, and Notingham-shiere, they haue two; for all other Countries [counties] vnnamed, there is none of them but plow with some of these Ploughes before-mentioned.”
3. 1. The parts of a plough are enumerated in Gervase Markham’s Complete Husbandman (1614), which is quoted at length in Rogers’s Hist. of Agriculture and Prices, vol. i. p. 534. It is probable that the plough, as described by Fitzherbert, did not materially differ from that in use in 1614.
The principal parts, according to Markham, are as follows.
(1). ‘The ploughbeam, a large and long piece of timber, which forms an arch for the other parts of the plough.’ It is, says Fitzherbert, the long beam above, which is slightly bent. The plough-sheath, the coulter, and the plough-foot, are all mortised into it, pointing downwards.
(2). ‘The skeath (i.e. sheath), a piece of wood two and a half feet long, eight inches broad, and two inches thick, which is mortised into the beam, and sloping forwards below it.’ Fitzherbert says it is a thin piece of dry oak, fixed both in the plough-beam and the share-beam, and is the chief ‘band,’ i.e. strengthening piece or support, of the whole plough. By ‘thin,’ he must mean that it is thin (2 inches) in proportion to its breadth (8 inches); it is necessary that it should be very strong, as it holds the implement together.
(3). ‘The plough’s principal hale on the left hand, a long bent piece of wood, somewhat strong in the midst, and so slender at the upper end that a man may easily gripe it.’ This is Fitzherbert’s plough-tail (l. 16), which he says is mortised into the sharebeam behind, and pinned to the ploughbeam behind also. The ploughman holds it in his left hand. It is also called the ploughstart; where start means tail, as in red-start.
(4). ‘The plough-head, which is fixed with the skeath and the hale, all at one instant, into 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.’ This is the same as what Fitzherbert calls the sharebeam; see the explanation in [sect. 2], l. 10.
(5). ‘The plough-spindles, two round pieces of wood which couple the hales [handles] together.’ These are what Fitzherbert calls the rough staves; see [l. 35].
(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.’ This is Fitzherbert’s plough-stilt; see [l. 21].