Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (1.1968/1971)

CLASSIFICATION OF TILLING IMPLEMENTS

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28. Danish double stilts, the left one of which
is equipped with a handle and placed upon the
narrow sole by its bent lower end. In the
shortened right stilt a mast is anchored like
a double armed lever leading crosswise to
the left stilt, on which it leans and which it
overtops. With the exception of the lower
strut it was the only support of the right stilt,
on which the mouldboard was nailed,
29. British stilts consist of the left stilt carrying
the beam and anchored in the narrow sole
and the shortened right hand stilt (drock) at-
tached to an auxiliary sole and fixed to the
left stilt by means of strong struts. A long
and strong rod leading from the middle of
the beam or of the sheath considerably over-
topped the upper end of the drock.
A special feature is given to the implements,
though of the same constructional type, by a
sheer or heavily inclined position of their stilts
and sheaths. It is therefore necessary to distin-
guish between:
30. vertical stilt (stilts),
31. slightly inclined stilt (stilts) - more than 45°
to the earth,
32. heavily inclined stilt (stilts) - under 45°,
Some vertical and sheer-pointed stilts were equip-
ped with handles of various constructions. The
handles formed by handrails, oblique rods or
rough staves are mentioned above. Other forms
of handles are:
33. one sided handle,
34. two sided cross handle,
35. horizontal sokha handles,
36. handle-holes on flat stilts.
Sole - We have discussed some methods of at-
taching the sole to the construction in those types
of implements, where the sole acts as a working
part. Let us now consider the shape of this im-
portant constructional part. In some tilling imple-
ments it acts as a mouldstroker too. It is self-evi-

dent that in most cases the form of the sole was
influenced by the claims of the maker regarding
the output of the implement and by his endea-
vour to diminish the striking surface of the sole.
We distinguish:
1. narrow oblong sole,
2. cone-shaped sole widening towards its heel,
3. sole concave at its lower striking surface,
4. exchangable narrow sole with a circular pro-
file,
5. high and narrow sole with a slanting neck,
6. trapezium-shaped sole with a wider heel, into
which two stilts are mortised,
7. triangular sole,
8. compound triangular sole, formed by two
flat triangular mouldstrokers,
9. compound sole formed by the main narrow
sole, to whose neck an auxiliary sole made of
a lath is attached at an acute angle with the
aid of staves.
Ard head - The main characteristics of this part:
1. ard head in a sheer position to the earth (at
an angle of more than 45°),
2. ard head in a heavily slanting position (under
45°),
3. straight ard head,
4. bent ard head,
5. ard head with an almost circular cross sec-
tion,
6. wide and flat ard head,
7. partially turnable ard head with a lever (beam
and ard head joined loosely together),
8. ard head consisting of two wings with a com-
mon point,
9. two-toothed ard head (flat and forked ard
head),
10. multitoothed sokha ard head.
Sheath - Various shapes and positions of this
constructional part:
1. wooden or iron sheath in the ard without
sole, connecting the ard head with the beam,