The Book of Husbandry

by Anthony Fitzherbert

(7). The plough-rest, a small piece of wood, fixed at one end in the further nick of the plough-head, and on the other end to the right-hand hale.’ ‘In the Middle Ages,’ says Prof. Rogers, ‘it appears that this part was made of iron, and that it was occasionally double.’ We must remember that plough-head means the sharebeam.

(8). ‘The shelboard [i.e. shield-board], a board of more than an inch thick, covering the right side of the plough, and fastened with two strong wooden pins to the skeath and right-hand hale.’

(9). ‘The coulter, a long piece of iron made sharp at one end, passing on one side by a mortise-hole through the beam, and held in place by an iron ring which winds round the beam and strengthens it.’ Fitzherbert’s description is slightly different; see [l. 48]. The use of the coulter is to make the first incision into the earth; it precedes the share, which follows it and completes its work.

(10). ‘The share. If this be needed for a mixed earth, it is made without a wing, or with a small one only: if, however, it be needed for a deep or stiff clay, it should be made with a large wing or an outer point.’

(11). ‘The plough-foot. This is an iron implement, passed through a mortise-hole, and fastened at the farther end of the beam by a wedge or two, so that the husbandman may at his discretion set it higher or lower; the use being to give the plough earth or to put it from the earth, for the more it is driven downward the more it raises the beam from the ground and makes the irons forsake the earth, and the more it is driven upward, the more it lets down the beam and makes the irons bite the ground.’ Fitzherbert well describes it as ‘a stay to order of what deepness the plough shall go.’ The word ploughfote occurs in Piers Plowman, B. vi. 105; see my notes to that poem, vol. iv. p. 161. This part of the plough was also called a plough-shoe (in Latin, ferripedalis); see Rogers (as above), p. 538. In a modern plough, the plough-foot is generally replaced by small wheels. I may remark that it was placed in front, before the coulter.

If we compare the preceding account with that given by Fitzherbert, we shall see that the two nearly agree. Fitzherbert’s plough-beam, plough-sheath, and plough-tail are Nos. 1, 2, and 3 above; his stilt, rest, and shieldboard are Nos. 6, 7, and 8; his rough staves, plough-foot, share, and coulter, are Nos. 5, 11, 10, and 9. But he has three additional terms, viz. the sharebeam, which is the wooden frame for the share, and is called by Markham the plough-head (No. 4). Secondly, the fen-board, i.e. mud-board, covering the left side of the plough, and fastened to the left of the sheath and the left hale, much as the shield-board is fastened to the right of the sheath and the right hale. Lastly, the plough-ear, defined as ‘three pieces of iron, nailed fast to the right side of the plough-beam,’ for which poor men substituted ‘a crooked piece of wood pinned fast to the plough-beam.’ What was the use of this appendage we are not expressly told; but it seems to have been used for fastening the trace to, for draught; see [4.] 34.

Fitzherbert also notices the plough-mal, i.e. plough-mall or plough-mallet (l. 55), which seems to have consisted of a head of hard wood and a ‘pynne,’ or handle, and to have been loosely stuck into the plough-beam by passing the handle through ‘an augurs bore,’ i.e. through a hole bored in the beam by an augur for this especial purpose. This was no real part of the plough, but only a tool conveniently kept at hand. He does not, however, mention the plough-staff (or akerstaff), which was ‘a pole shod with a flat iron, the purpose of which was to clear the mould-board from any stiff earth which might cling to it while the plough was at work’; Rogers, as above, p. 539. This was originally held in the right hand (see my notes to P. Plowman); but I think it likely that, when a second handle, or stilt, came into use, the plough-staff was given up. Wright’s Prov. Glossary gives “mell, mellet, a square piece of wood fitted with a handle, a mallet.”

10. I. R. says of the sharbeame, that “in some Countries it is called the plough-head.” Fitzherbert has already said this, see [2.] 10.

12. Oke] Oake or Ashe; I.R.

15. I. R. says of the plough-tayle, that “in many Countries [it is] called the Plough-hale, of which they haue two, but the other is fastened to the rough staues and the shelboard.” The other hale is the plough-stilt.