Scottish agricultural implement makers

Alexander Shanks started his business in 1804. By two years later he had patented his first lawn mower’ lawn-mowers were to be closely associated with the Shanks name for made decades afterwards.

Alexander Shanks & Son was established in 1840 to manufacture steam engines, iron bridges and steam cranes. By 1849 the company described itself as “Alexander Shanks & Son, machine makers, Ogilvie Place, Arbroath”. It was to change its address a few years later in 1853 when it moved to Dens Iron Works where it remained until its closure well into the second half of the twentieth century. It was one of the earliest Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers to become a company limited by guarantee, which it did so by 1893.

The company was a forward and outward looking one. It was one of the few Scottish agricultural implement makers to have an address in London: it opened its Leadenhall Street office around 1860 (later Cannon Street by 1893). It also had a number of representatives, including J. C. Soutar, Uddingston, by 1904. It sold its manufactures around the globe.

In Scotland the company attended the Highland Show from 1852 until 1962. The Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland gave it a commended award for its mowing and rolling machines at the show of 1859.
James Shanks had a number of patents, especially before 1878. These included:
1147 of 21 May 1855, to James Shanks, machinist, Arbroath, for an invention of ‘improvements in mowing machines’
1700 of 19 July 1859 to James Shanks, machinist, Arbroath, for an invention of ‘improvements in mowing machines’
3031 of 10 November 1862 to James Shanks, machinist, Arbroath, for the invention of ‘improvements in mowing machines’
1185 of 11 May 1863, to James Shanks, machinist, Arbroath, for the invention of ‘improvments in machinery for cutting or shearing the edges of grass or turf’
1185 of 11 May 1863, to James Shanks, machinist, Arbroath, for the invention of ‘improvements in machinery for cutting or shearing the edges of grass or turf’
982 of 2 April 1867, to James Shanks, Arbroath, for the invention of ‘improvements in cutting the hair of horses or other animals, and in the machinery or apparatus employed therefore’
2315 of 12 August 1867, to James Shanks, Arbroath, and John Cargill, Leadenhall Street, London, for the invention of ‘improvements in lawn mowing machines’
1517 of 25 May 1870 to James Shanks, Arbroath, for an invention of ‘improvements in wheels for traction steam engines and other heavy vehicles’
2869 of 30 August 1873 to James Shanks of Alexander Shanks and Son, Arbroath, and John Thyne, Arbroath, Manager to Alexander Shanks and Son, for the invention of ‘improvements in steam boilers’
631 of 16 February 1876, to James Shanks, for the invention of ‘improvements in portable steam cranes’
694 of 20 February 1877 to James Shanks and James Gordon Lyon, Forfar, for the invention of ‘improvements in machines for clipping the edges of turf on lawns, pleasure grounds, verges, and such like’
3237 of 25 August 1877 to James Shanks and James Gordon Lyon, Arbroath, for the improvement of ‘improvements in steam engines’
3237 of 25 August 1877 to James Shanks and James Gordon Lyon, Arbroath, for the invention of ‘improvements in steam engines’
2487 of 22 June 1878 to James Shanks and James Gordon Lyon, Arbroath, for the invention of ‘improvements in governors for motive-power engines’ )
4219 of 22 October 1878 to James Shanks and James Gordon Lyon, Arbroath, for the invention of ‘improvements in machinery or apparatus for excavating’.

The company made a wide range of lawn mowers. In 1910 it exhibited at the Highland Show the following models: petrol motor lawn mower, “Triumph” horse mower, for golf course, “Caledonia” lawn mower, standard gear lawn mower, “Talisman” lawn mower, “Britannia” lawn mower, “Britisher” lawn mower, and “pony” lawn mower. It also sold a selection of malleable castings for agricultural engineers, millwrights, coach builders, cartwrights, motor car builders, shipbuilders and machinists.

It also sold a range of oil engines. In 1910 they included a 2bhp, a 5 bhp, an 8 bhp, and a 14bhp. It also sold combined oil engines and pump.

The photographs of the Shanks oil engines were taken at Farming Yesteryear, September 2018.

The Board of Agriculture’s county surveys of 1793 to 1817 include detailed account of implements and machines. A number of surveyors include detailed accounts on the adoption and use of thrashing machines. In 1799 the surveyor of Perthshire provided a short and succinct account of the use of thrashing machines in the county. It is quoted below:

“Thrashing of corn by machinery has been practiced in this county for near half a century; and these machines are now coming fast into use. Their construction is various, according to the ingenuity of the maker. They are driven sometimes by water, but in most cases by horses. They thrash more or less in proportion to the weight of water or the number of horses employed in driving them. Mr Patterson of Castlehuntly, who introduced them into the Carse of Cowrie, has one, which is very uncommon, both for the quantity and excellence of its work. A farmer in Wester Lundie near Doune, of the name of Ferguson, is said to have invented a machine of this kind, very simple in its construction and very cheap; which are two considerations of importance to the common class of farmers. There are three erected already in the parish of Callander; and another about to be made soon. The three which have been made, cost each about L20. At the moderate calculation of one shilling per boll, either of these machines will repay their own expense by thrashing the first 400 bolls.
Fanners for cleaning grain have been long used by the most industrious of the farmers, and are to be met with, not only in every corn-mill, but almost in every barn, where the farm is more adapted for tillage than pasture.”

The name of John Wallace & Sons is a well-known and long established one among the Scottish agricultural implement and machine makers.

In the early 1940s the company had a business that extended throughout the major agricultural districts of Scotland. In 1942 an advert in the Scottish Farmer noted that the Glasgow based company (at Dennistoun) had branches at Perth, Aberfeldy, Edinburgh, Cupar, Laurencekirk, Wishaw, Carlisle, Oldham and Welwyn Garden City. By 1947 the company was listed as being at Glasgow and Welwyn Garden City and as having branches at Perth, Aberfeldy, Edinburgh, Cupar, Laurencekirk, Wishaw, Dumfries, Carlisle and Oldham. In 1952 the company’s branches were at Perth, Cupar, Stirling and Laurencekirk.

There were changes in how the company presented itself and how it was structured. There were a number of companies set up under the Wallace name.

By 1961 the company had changed its name to John Wallace & Sons (Agricultural Engineers, Glasgow) Ltd. It was to become John Wallace Agricultural Machinery Ltd after its incorporated on 23 November 1965 (and dissolved on 5 December 1973). An advert in the Farming News on 14 May 1965 noted that “John Wallace & Sons (A. E. G.) Ltd announce that the name of the company has been changed to John Wallace (Agricultural Machinery) Ltd, and are now operating from their new headquarters at Shell Park, Stirling. As previously announced spare parts enquiries are to be made to John Wallace Spares Division, Alloway Road, Maybole.

In addition, John Wallace Engineering Ltd was incorporated on 10 July 1964 (and dissolved on 30 December 1975). Further, John Wallace Farm Equipment Ltd was incorporated on 3 February 1965 (and dissolved on 30 December 1975). John Wallace Farm Equipment East Limited was incorporated as Thomas Sherriff & Company Ltd on 23 September 1941. Its parent company There was also a John Wallace Chemicals Ltd.

By the late 1960s John Wallace (Engineering ) Ltd was a holding company with 8 directors, and 2 shareholders, whose principal activity was the investment in and management of companies engaged in general engineering. In 1967 the subsidiay companies included Polarcold Ltd, Associated Metal Works Glasgow Ltd, Crawford Machinery Co. Ltd, John Wallace Mechanical Handling Ltd, Trucks & Pallets Scotland Ltd. All was not, however, well on the trading side by late 1968. In its annual return for October 1968 the company had a trading loss of £45,000. From 1 April 1969 the company was no longer trading; it was under a patent company, Stenhouse Holdings Ltd, which was incorporated in Scotland. By 1973 this had become Stenhouse Industries Ltd. Wallace was dissolved by notice in the Edinburgh Gazette on 30 December 1975.

John Wallace Farm Equipment Ltd, with a registered office at Shell Park, Stirling, and then at St Vincent Street, Glasgow, had a number of wholly owned subsidiaries. These were A. Baird & Sons Ltd, Alexander Jack & Sons Ltd, Thomas Sherriff & Co. Ltd, and Praills Hereford Ltd. By 1968 the first three of these were dormant companies. by 1971 the company was no longer trading. It too was also under the ultimate holding company of Stenhouse Holdings Ltd.

John Wallace Farm Equipment East discontinued its business activities in January 1967 and by 31 March 1969 its assets had been substantially realised. It was also under the holding company of Stenhouse Holdings Ltd.

By the second half of the 1960s the companies faced tough trading conditions – like the other Scottish implement and machine makers. A good many of them went under, including leading names like that of Wallace of Glasgow. Its company records show an interesting connections between companies as well as different business models and types of management.

In the early 1850s if you heard the name “Scoular’ you would have associated it with the company of Scoular & Co. agricultural implement makers at Haddington. In 1857 Mr Scoular retired in favour of Kemp, Murray & Nicholson of Stirling who had taken a lease of their premises and purchased the whole stock in trade, machinery, patterns and working plant.

By the early 1870s there were a number of members of the Scowler family around Stirling that worked as implement makers. James Scoular of Woodside, Kippen, made ploughs, drills as well as a collection of implements. There was also John Scoular of Crook Smithy, Stirling, who continued in business until at least 1910.

John Scoular was an important implement maker and was also internationally known. By the early 1870s his smithy had expanded into the Crook Implement Works where it became noted for its harrows, rollers, horse rakes and other implements. The trades carried on were as agricultural engineers. agricultural implement makers, engineers and iron founders, machinists, smiths and farriers. The company was a regular exhibitor at the Highland Show, exhibiting from 1871 until 1910. It exhibited around each of the show districts, exposing its implements to farmers throughout Scotland. It was also a regular advertiser in the Scottish farming press, especially the Scottish farmer from 1893 onwards.

The company was also an innovative one. From the early 1880s it was a frequent entrant to the Highland Society’s trials of implements and machines. In 1881 it entered at the trial of potato diggers and the trial of turnip lifters. In the following year it entered for the trial of horse rakes. In 1885 it entered for the trial of cultivator harrows as well as implements for the autumn cultivation of stubbles. In 1889, it entered in the trial of hay and straw trussers.

The North British Agriculturist gave a detailed description of John Scoular in 1893. It reads:

“Mr John Scoular is the fourth son of the late David Scoular, the well-known plough maker of Forest Mill, Clackmannanshire. Mr Scowler began business on his own account twenty-seven years ago, and pushed his trade with such energy that his name was soon known in all the principal agricultural districts of Great Britain, including Ireland and the remote islands of Scotland. After establishing a large home trade, he next turned his attention to export business, cultivating it with the same diligence, so that in a few years he formed connections in many different quarters of the globe. In 1881 he was invited by a number of the principal merchants and farmers of Natal, South Africa, to visit their colony and see their ways of cultivation for himself, so that he might better understand their requirements. He accepted the invitation, and on his arrival in Natal he received a warm welcome from his friends there, and profited greatly by his journey. Mr Scoular has also large dealings with the south-east of Europe, and he has travelled seven times there, visiting the extensive wheat plans of Bessarabia, Roumania, Bulgaria and Hungary. He claims he is now the largest harrow maker in Scotland. and there are few counties where his hay rakes cannot be found at work.”

If you see the name Scoular around the rally field you will know it is a long established and eminent one!

The photograph was taken at the Daviot vintage rally, September 2018.

One of the well-known Aberdeen implement and machine makers was Ben Reid & Co. It was also known for its nurseries and forestry business which it continued to undertake exclusively from 1906 onwards.

By the mid 1860s the business described itself as “Ben Reid & Co., agricultural implement makers, Bon Accord Works, Justice MillLane, Aberdeen. In 1867 it described itself as Ben Reid & Co., seedsmen, nurserymen and implement makers, Aberdeen. A decade later its addresses were at 16 Guild Street and Bon Accord Works, Justice Mills. By the mid 1890s it also had premises at Fettercairn and Laurencekirk.

The company undertook a wide range of trades in implement and machine makers, as an agricultural implement agent, a maker, engineer, engineer and millwright, galvanised merchant, garden chair maker, garden tool maker, horticultural builder, iron bridge builder, iron fence and hurdle manufacturer, iron founder, iron gate manufacturer, makchine maker, mechanical engineer, millwright, weigh bride maker, weighing machine maker, wire fence maker. and wire worker.

As an agent it associated itself with leading names of other implement and machine makers. In the 1860s they included Samuelson & Co., Banbury, Ransomes, Sims & Head, Ipswich, E. H. Bengal, Heybridge, Alexander Jack & Sons, Maybole. J. & T. Young, Ayr, Shotts Iron Co. In the 1890s they included Massey Harris Co Ltd, London, Tangyes Ltd, Birmingham and Glasgow. It was a regular exhibitor to the Highland Show especially from the late 1860s onwards.

It was also an award-winning company, receiving a silver medal from the Royal Agricultural Society of England for its patent disc broadcast sower in 1872 and for its farmyard manure spreader. This was quite an accolade as few Scottish companies won medals form the Society. From that Society it also won a second prize for its improved heavy harrows in 1872. In Scotland it won a number of silver medals form the Highland Society. They included one for its lever drill in 1868, and its collection in 1870, 1871 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875 and 1876. It entered a number of its implements for the Highland Society’s trials. These included a broadcast manure distributor in 1884, manure distributer in 1886, and a grass seed sowing machine in 1887. Members of the company also held patents, including ons for improvements in straining or tightening wire in 1866, improvements in drill sowing machines, horse rakes and horse hoes in 1867, improvements in seed sowing machines in 1869, and an improved spanner or nut key in 1870.

William Anderson was one of the partners of the company. On 19 July 1893 the Scottish agricultural newspaper, North British Agriculturist, provided a short biography of him. It provides a good deal of information on the name and the company he was at at the helm of:

“Mr. Anderson of Messrs Ben Reid & Co., Bon-Accord Works, Aberdeen, is one of the best known and most highly-respected leaders in the ranks of the agricultural engineers. Mr Anderson has risen from the ranks, for his father was a country blacksmith, and he learned that trade with his father. His energies, however, could not find full scope in a country smithy, and before long he became the travelling representative of Messrs Murray & Co., agricultural implement makers, Banff, and by his characteristic energy and good management he soon wrought that business up to a very flourishing state. His marked success and sterling qualities soon attracted the attention of Mr George Reid, who had joined the business established by his uncle, Mr Ben Reid, and on the retirement of the latter gentleman had become the partner in the firm of Ben Reid & Co. This business was originally confined to the seed trade, but the implement department, grafted upon it shortly afterwards, expended so rapidly that the seed business was formed into a separate business under different properties, all the resources of the Bon Accord Works being taxed to the utmost to supply the demands upon them for agricultural implements. In 1876, Mr George Reid decided to select two partners, who, as he felt certain, would be able to make the Bon-Accord Works an enduring monument to the memory of their founder, Mr Ben Reid, and his selection fell upon Mr Anderson and Mr Garvie. These gentlemen closed with this invitation, and since the death of Mr George Reid, in 1879, they have been the sole partners in the firm. The Bon-Accord Works are among the most extensive of the kind in the united Kingdom, and they are splendidly equipped with machinery of the most modern and most approved construction, many of the machines used in these works being the products of the inventive genius of Messrs Anderson & Garvie. In addition to a very large home business, the firm conduct an immense foreign business, and in every country under the sun, where improved methods of cultivation are used, there are the products of the Bon-Accord Works are well known and highly appreciated. Their principal products are the Bon-Accord reapers and ploughs, threshing machines, seed drills, and broadcast sowing machines. They also do a large business in the manufacture of ornamental fences and gates. Mr Anderson regularly attends all the leading shows in the United Kingdom, so that he is better known to the show-goers than Mr Garvie, who is constantly at the head of the business conducted in the works. Mr Anderson is a gentleman of a very marked individuality and robust independence. He is no supple-tongued salesman, who can talk any unwilling purchaser into buying his goods. On the contrary, he stands secure in the high reputation which his firm have long been held for the excellence of their products; and while he displays his goods in the most attractive style, and has a pleasant word for every one, he makes a very strict point of avoiding any appearance of pressing sales: and any cheap jack who attempts to beat down his prices invariably gets short shrift at his hands. It is safe to say also that no one stands higher in the estimation of his fellow exhibitors than he does, and a good proof of that is found in the fact that for four years in succession he was unanimously elected President of the Scottish Agricultural Engineers, from which post he retired only two years ago, and only a few weeks ago he was unanimously elected President of the Royal Tradesmen in Aberdeen.

Ben Reid & Co. – an eminent agricultural engineering company from the second half of the nineteenth century whose activities continued until 1907.

Headstones can provide a great deal of information about people and their past lives, of families and their relations and employment. Some of the older gravestones, especially from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, have elaborate decorations. These include pictures of rural life.

One such gravestone is at Skipness in Argyll. It includes an engraving of a plough team using the Old Scotch plough. This plough required to be pulled by a number of oxen, cows or other animals. In the gravestone the plough team comprises four oxen, working as two pairs. The plough would have been made of mouldboard. There is one ploughman (who looks like he is having to work hard). Usually there would have been another to help to guide the draught animals.

Harvesting turnips was always hard work. Heavy and wet turnips that were not always easy to pull and wet shows could make for an even harder job.

Scottish makers led the way in the development of turnip harvesters. MacDonald Brothers of Portsoy who had led the way in their harvester in the 1890s (winning the HASS turnip lifting trial of 1895 against other leading makers), continued to make the “Ideal Lifter” into the 1950s when versions were available for use with horses, as well as with tractors including Ferguson and David Brown.

Sir George Steuart Mackenzie wrote a survey of the agriculture of Ross-shire for the Board of Agriculture in 1810. It includes a short description of ploughs and ploughing in that county.

“The plough which is used by the common people, is an extremely awkward imitation of the improved implement used by the best farmers. But it is so calculated to turn up the ground, that the person who holds it experiences more fatigue in twisting and turning, and pushing and pulling it, than the horses and other cattle employed in the draught. The plough commonly used by the better sort of farmers, is that constructed after the well-known model of Small’s plough. It is made as light as possible, consistently with the strength required, and performs its work very neatly when tolerably well managed. Two horses are employed by our very best farmers to draw a plough; but the country people employ cows, oxen, and horses often in the same team, to the number of six or eight.”

David Ure provided a short, but succinct, account of the implements and machines in Roxburghshire for the Board of Agriculture in 1794. It included the most important implements of the day – ploughs, carts, wagons, fanners, and mills. He notes some of the key members of the agricultural community that introduced improved implements as well as those who were using the latest technologies. His account is quoted at length:

“Small’s two-horse plough is in general use for a light soil; but the common Scotch plough, sometimes of a light construction, is preferred in stiff clay land, especially if new soil is to be raised, or where the course of the furrow is interrupted by large stones. In these cases, the pike sock is best, but is generally disliked by ploughmen, because, according to their manner of working, it does not make a neat furrow. Ploughmen, from an over-fondness of exhibiting what they call fine work, are sometimes induced to reprobate those instruments, and neglect that mode of working, which experience teaches to best for the ground. In Tiviotdale, however, the soil is generally such, that workmen but of ordinary abilities, may give it a beautiful appearance; especially as the climate affords them every advantage that can be derived from it. A ploughman bred on a light soil, which he can work in any manner, at what time, and with what implements he pleases, would make but a sorry figure on a wet stiff soil, full of large stones, and where heavy instruments are necessary. The Scotch plough is furnished, not unfrequently, with the English, or cast iron, mould board.
In the art of ploughing, great advantages are derived from keeping the plough horses in mutual friendship. For this purpose, they are commonly fed together in the same stall, and every method is used to establish between them an unvoidable affection. In accompanying this desirable end, the ploughman of Tiviotdale are highly to be commended. The drill plough for turnips, with its rollers, &c &c is here brought to a great degree of perfection.
The lately invented threshing machine, has found its way into several places of the county, as Melrose, Bowden, Fairnington, &c. Some are wrought by means of water, others by horses. Threshing with the flail, is, however, more generally preferred, from a persuasion that the work is equally cheap, and well done, as with the other. It is also universally believed, that straw recently thrashed, is better for cattle than what is long kept; which last must be the case with most part of the straw threshed with the machine. It is also observed, that horses, having wrought the machine for a day or two, are, for some days afterwards, very much unfit for the cart or plough: they seen to be silly, and stupid. This may be owing to the circular tract in which they are forced to go, when in the machine.
Fanners are universally used. Those that are wrought by the hand, are said, by some people, to clean the corn better than when wrought by the machinery of a mill. The common report in the county is, that the model of this useful machine was, some years since, brought from Holland, by Sir-Douglas of Cavers, Bart. From this model, the first corn fanners in Britain were made, by a person of the name of Andrew Roger, who dwelt at Hawick, and who afterwards made considerable improvements on the machine. He introduced them into Durham, Northumberland, and other places of England. Fanners made to this day by Mr Roger’s descendants, are universally esteemed.
Mills for wheat, oats, and barley, are sufficiently numerous. Lint mills are not plenty in the county. Common prejudice s not in their favour; it being imagined that lint, scotched by hand, is better done than by the mill. This may probably be the case where the mills are ill constructed, and the workmen unskilled or careless. A scutcher usually gets 6d a day, and victuals.
Rollers are much used upon light soils. Mr Church at Eckford, has an improved roller, which, after the ground is well harrowed, makes, by its peculiar construction, a few small drills or furrows at once. Mr Church sows his grain in the broad cast way among the furrows, into which it naturally falls. He frequently hand hoes between the furrows, after the grain is brairded. This practice he finds to be much in favour both of the land and crop.
Open waggons, drawn by two horses in a trace, are commonly ten feet in length, four and three quarters in breadth, and one and three quarters in depth. A common close bodied cart, for two horses, is about five feet and a half in length. Three and a half in breadth, and one and a quarter in depth. The sides and ends are made to slope a little outward. The usual weight, is from seven to nine hundred weight. The cart costs from 5l to 6l sterling. The wheels are about four feet and a half in height. Iron axle-trees are preferred by some, on account of their strength; but in general, are reprobated, from a common belief that they shake the shaft horse too much. The trams are considerably closer at the far, or draught end, than at the body of the cart. They are separate about two feet and three quarters at the former, and three and a half at the latter. This particular construction is, by experienced carters, highly condemned, because the ends of the trams frequently strike the sides and shoulders of the hose, especially on a bad road; but were they nearly as wide as at the body of the cart, the horse would have more freedom to walk with ease. Two horses are almost universally used either for cart or wagon. They are supposed to be indispensibly necessary for bad roads, and long draughts. Single-horse carts and waggons, however, are daily becoming more numerous, and will probably, in a short time, supercede the other. They are found, by experience, to be much easier and safer for the horses; and that three will carry, for any length of road, a draught equal to what is usually drawn by two double-horse carts. But were the Lanarkshire breed of strong draught horses more common in the county, it is likely that a single-horse cart will be found to carry as much as any double-horse cart, by the breed at present encouraged. One driver can manage two single horse carts with as much ease as he can do a double-horse cart. It is necessary, however, that he leave off the absurd and dangerous custom, which is practiced in this and some of the neighbouring counties, of sitting on the cart or wagon, whether empty or full.”

The photographs were taken at the Borders Vintage Rally, May 2016.

This weekend the Scottish National Ploughing Championships are being held at Kelso.

There are many aspects of ploughs and ploughing that have changed over the centuries. But there are also similarities as well.

Robert Douglas, writing his agricultural survey of Roxburghshire in 1797 included a detailed account of ploughs and ploughing in the county. At that time there were a number of types of ploughs available. The key ones were the olden day ploughs, made or largely made of wood – the Old Scots Plough – and the new modern iron plough, invented by James Small of Blackadder Mount. The new ploughs provided a revolution in ploughs and ploughing. Douglas’ account of these is worth quoting at length:

“The Scotch plough, with a long stout beam, and a long narrow point, though still used in stiff clay land, especially when it is to be broken up from grass, and even in light soil, when the furrow is interrupted by stones, has in general given place to the Rotherham plough, improven by Small [James Small]. The former is thought by some to expose a larger surface to the atmosphere, by which the soil, when harrowed, admits of a finer pulverization; but the latter is allowed to make a nearer furrow, as well as to loosen and turn up more earth from the bottom. It is commonly made exactly to Mr Small’s model, with this difference, that the beam is two, and sometimes even four inches longer. The moulds (or mould-boards as they are termed) of cast metal, recommended by the Dalkeith Society of Farmers, are much used; and the head or peak, instead of being covered with plates of iron, is not infrequently made wholly of it, or of cast metal. The shath too or sheath, including the head or peak, is sometimes one entire piece of cast metal. Opinions differ with respect to the structure of the muzzle. All ploughs have a rod of iron, doubled so as to embrace the beam either perpendicularly or horizontally, with four or five holes in that part of it which crosses the point of the beam, in one or other of which the harness is fixed. This bridle, as it is here called, moves upon a strong pin piercing the beam, about four or five inches from its point in some ploughs, and in others about fifteen or sixteen inches. In the former case, the bridle is placed horizontally, and has a long tail, by means of which, the depth of the furrow can be regulated. In the latter case, a piece of wood, with four or five holes in it, is fixed to the end of the beam, sometimes in a horizontal direction, to regulate the width, and sometimes in a perpetual direction, to regulate the depth of the furrow, by means of the bridle, which is always placed the opposite way from the piece of wood. This structure is preferred, as making the draught more steady. And some use a chain, partly to strengthen the beam, and partly to assist the movement of the plough, in very stiff soil, by the shake which it occasions.

The plough is drawn by a strong stretcher, commonly called a two horse tree, with an iron staple in the middle, and a hook in it to go into one of the holes in the bridle, and with two iron ends, in each of which there is a hole to receive a smaller hook, coming from the middle of two lesser stretchers, or single horse trees, to whose extremities the ropes were formerly tied, and now the chains are fastened, which reach from both sides of the collars of two horses placed abreast.”

The photographs were taken at the Scottish Ploughing Championships in 2016.