DOI article:
Lucas, A. T.: Irish ploughing practices, 4
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48999#0210
196
A. T. LUCAS
Ropes in this tradition, if of slightly different
material, survived in use in some parts of the
country to within the present century. Follow-
ing the destruction of the greater part of the
native woodlands in the seventeenth century,
the Irish rural community, faced with a famine
of timber, came to rely more and more on the
sub-fossil trunks of pine, oak and yew pre-
served in the peat bogs to meet their needs in
wood. One of the best documented aspects of
the exploitation of this bogwood is the use of
ropes made of thin slivers of pine twisted
together. First attested in 1709 (J. Arch. Society
1846 vol. 1, 165), they were employed every-
where bogwood suitable for their manufacture
was available and put to a wide variety of
uses: for cording beds, roping down thatch,
tying hay and com stacks and as burden ropes,
boat cables and halters and tethers for animals
(Bealoideas vol. 23, 103-110).
Ropes of withies, straw and similar materials
are frequently mentioned in connection with
horse furniture and ploughing. A mid-seven-
teenth century Irish satire on the peasantry,
called Pairlement Chloinne Tomdis, depicts
their spokesmen as urging their followers to
stick to their old traditions in these matters and
refuse to adopt newer fashions. One counsels
the assembled peasants to have their horses
equipped with “good, strong, gad halters, ad-
hastair mhatha Ididre ghadraigh” and “crup-
pers of good stiff rope made of rye straw or
sedge” (Gadelica vol. 1, 230) and one man ad-
vises another that his straddle should never be
without a fresh gad (Gadelica vol. 1, 128).
Lithgow’s use of “wooden ropes” for plough-
ing is corroborated by Dineley, writing about
the Burren district, County Clare, in 1681:
“their Plough Geers, tackle, and traces being
(as they are all over the rest of the Kingdome)
of Gadds or withs of twiggs twisted” (Dineley
163). As Dineley travelled fairly extensively in
the country, his testimony about the universal
use of withy ropes for plough traces is valuable,
while he also states that these were sometimes
replaced by “wispes”, i. e. ropes made of straw,
hay or rushes. Similar information about withy
plough traces is given by Monk in his account
of agriculture in County Kildare in 1682:
“Their Tillage they performe with little horses
or Garrans, in Geeres or harnasse made of
Withs or Gadds, so they can set up and furnish
out a plow with lesse than a third the charge
they cann possibly doe it for in England”
(Journ. Kildare vol. 6, 340). Madden, 1738,
referring to the harrows used by the poorer
farmers, states that the tackle for them and for
ploughs also consisted of “twisted Gads and
wretched Taggs cut out of the Hides of Horses”
(Madden 131). Vestiges of the practice survived
till much later times for it was recorded in
County Kilkenny in 1800 that gads were em-
ployed for coupling the traces to ploughs and
carts (Tighe 304).
So great was the use of withies for plough
traction and other purposes that, in 1705, the
Irish parliament introduced an act for the
planting and preservation of trees and woods
which adverted to the large quantities of young
trees “daily destroyed by the making of gadds
and wyths” and forbad the use “in plowing,
drawing of timber, or other work whatsoever”
of gads of oak, ash, birch, hazel or any other
kind of tree (Statutes vol. 4, 88). The preamble
to another act of 1710 particularizes further on
the use of gads for horse harness and imposes
penalties on any person who should “cut or
make use of any gads or withs on his or their
plows, carrs, carts, harness, tackle, or other-
wise” (Statutes vol. 4, 259). As “great quanti-
ties of gads and withs” continued to be sold
daily at markets and fairs for these purposes,
this act was strengthened by an amendment in
1715 (Statutes vol. 4, 399). Legislation failed to
put an end to the practice for an act of 1747
imposed an extra toll to be collected at all
turnpikes throughout the country on every car
having backbands, halters or traces made of
A. T. LUCAS
Ropes in this tradition, if of slightly different
material, survived in use in some parts of the
country to within the present century. Follow-
ing the destruction of the greater part of the
native woodlands in the seventeenth century,
the Irish rural community, faced with a famine
of timber, came to rely more and more on the
sub-fossil trunks of pine, oak and yew pre-
served in the peat bogs to meet their needs in
wood. One of the best documented aspects of
the exploitation of this bogwood is the use of
ropes made of thin slivers of pine twisted
together. First attested in 1709 (J. Arch. Society
1846 vol. 1, 165), they were employed every-
where bogwood suitable for their manufacture
was available and put to a wide variety of
uses: for cording beds, roping down thatch,
tying hay and com stacks and as burden ropes,
boat cables and halters and tethers for animals
(Bealoideas vol. 23, 103-110).
Ropes of withies, straw and similar materials
are frequently mentioned in connection with
horse furniture and ploughing. A mid-seven-
teenth century Irish satire on the peasantry,
called Pairlement Chloinne Tomdis, depicts
their spokesmen as urging their followers to
stick to their old traditions in these matters and
refuse to adopt newer fashions. One counsels
the assembled peasants to have their horses
equipped with “good, strong, gad halters, ad-
hastair mhatha Ididre ghadraigh” and “crup-
pers of good stiff rope made of rye straw or
sedge” (Gadelica vol. 1, 230) and one man ad-
vises another that his straddle should never be
without a fresh gad (Gadelica vol. 1, 128).
Lithgow’s use of “wooden ropes” for plough-
ing is corroborated by Dineley, writing about
the Burren district, County Clare, in 1681:
“their Plough Geers, tackle, and traces being
(as they are all over the rest of the Kingdome)
of Gadds or withs of twiggs twisted” (Dineley
163). As Dineley travelled fairly extensively in
the country, his testimony about the universal
use of withy ropes for plough traces is valuable,
while he also states that these were sometimes
replaced by “wispes”, i. e. ropes made of straw,
hay or rushes. Similar information about withy
plough traces is given by Monk in his account
of agriculture in County Kildare in 1682:
“Their Tillage they performe with little horses
or Garrans, in Geeres or harnasse made of
Withs or Gadds, so they can set up and furnish
out a plow with lesse than a third the charge
they cann possibly doe it for in England”
(Journ. Kildare vol. 6, 340). Madden, 1738,
referring to the harrows used by the poorer
farmers, states that the tackle for them and for
ploughs also consisted of “twisted Gads and
wretched Taggs cut out of the Hides of Horses”
(Madden 131). Vestiges of the practice survived
till much later times for it was recorded in
County Kilkenny in 1800 that gads were em-
ployed for coupling the traces to ploughs and
carts (Tighe 304).
So great was the use of withies for plough
traction and other purposes that, in 1705, the
Irish parliament introduced an act for the
planting and preservation of trees and woods
which adverted to the large quantities of young
trees “daily destroyed by the making of gadds
and wyths” and forbad the use “in plowing,
drawing of timber, or other work whatsoever”
of gads of oak, ash, birch, hazel or any other
kind of tree (Statutes vol. 4, 88). The preamble
to another act of 1710 particularizes further on
the use of gads for horse harness and imposes
penalties on any person who should “cut or
make use of any gads or withs on his or their
plows, carrs, carts, harness, tackle, or other-
wise” (Statutes vol. 4, 259). As “great quanti-
ties of gads and withs” continued to be sold
daily at markets and fairs for these purposes,
this act was strengthened by an amendment in
1715 (Statutes vol. 4, 399). Legislation failed to
put an end to the practice for an act of 1747
imposed an extra toll to be collected at all
turnpikes throughout the country on every car
having backbands, halters or traces made of