Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (4.1980/1983)

196

JONATHAN BELL


Fig. 1. Wooden framed harrows from the collection of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum,
showing standard terms for the main parts.
Holzerne Balkenegge aus der Sammlung des Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, die die Standardbe-
zeichnungen der wichtigsten Teile zeigt.

harrow half an acre per day ... two harrows
costing about 2 pence each are sufficient for
the ploughland per annum’ (O’Loan 1961,
15). O’Loan suggests that these harrows
were probably similar to those illustrated in
the Due de Berry’s Book of Hours (1360),
constructed with wooden frames and
wooden tines (O’Loan 1964, 19). References
to harrowing continue in fifteenth and six-
teenth century Irish writings. It is only in
eighteenth century works, however, that
physical descriptions and illustrations be-
come detailed (fig. 2).
Descriptions of ‘common’ Irish harrows in
the late eighteenth and early nineteenth cen-

turies often preface discussions on how the
implements might be improved. As late as
1830 an implement claimed to be in common
use among poorer Irish farmers was dismis-
sed as ‘villainous’ (Doyle 1830, 71). In fact,
descriptions of ‘common’ harrows vary quite
considerably from one part of Ireland to
another, differences sometimes being noted
even within the same county (Townsend
1810, 409). In many areas observers distin-
guished ‘heavy’ and ‘light’ harrows. Differ-
ences in construction also appear. In county
Meath large harrows were found whose out-
er bulls curved inwards towards a straight
central bull (fig. 3) (Thompson 1802, 116).