Category: Out and about

The Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement undertook an important survey of agriculture and rural improvement in Britain from 1793 to 1817. Each survey generally focused on a county or a small number of counties.

The accounts contained detailed accounts of the implements and machines used in each county, together with the changes that were being made to them.

The account for Perthshire provides insights into the character and state of implements used in that county. The short account is worth quoting at length:

“All the implements of husbandry are constructed according to better models and made of better materials, than formerly. So late as 20 years ago, no plough was to be seen, but on a gentleman’s farm in the low lands of this country, except that which is now called the old Scotch plough, drawn by four oxen and two horses, or by four horses and two oxen. In the Highlands the same kind of plough was universally used, drawn by four horses all yoked abreast. Instead of carts with wheels moveable upon the axlel that clumsy machine, in which the wheels were fixed to the axle, described by the President of the Board and still to be met with in the northern counties, was very common in all the low lands of Perthshire. The wheels had no speaks or naves. They were composed of three sections of solid plank, fixed together and rounded like the bottom of a large cask; and the axle was fixed in the centre, going through the middle section. The shafts had two pins that embraced the axle and made these awkward wheels tumble along; from which circumstance they were named tumblers. A timber mallet wrought by the hand was all they had for a roller to break the clods in the stiff land of the cases. Manners were very rare, and threshing machines not known. In the Highlands, the people performed distant carriages of bulky commodities with hurdles, fixed on each side of the horse, by means of a hooked car-saddle, still remembered by the name of currants. Less bulky commodities were carried in hampers or baskets, made of young haze, with a square mouth, and fixed on the horse’s back with the same car-saddle. Near carriages, particularly the ingathering of their hay and corns, were executed with a sledge, which consisted of two shafts reaching from the collar on the horse’s neck to the ground, with cross bars near the horse’s hind-feet, for a bottom, and at least seven erect bars behind, for keeping on the load. This sledge succeeded the hurdle and evidently required some rpoad, whereas the hurdle could be used wherever it was possible for a horse to watch. The name which this sledge has in the language of the Highlands shows that it was the carries of the gauls in Ceasar’s time; and the English name car is borrowed evidently from the Latin. Upon this sledge or car the farmers in the Highlands carried out the dung in large baskets, diverging towards the mouth in the shape of an equilateral triangle, one side of the basket lying on the bottom or floor of the sledge; but where the road would not admit of the sledge, the dung was carried to the field in baskets with moveable bottoms, like a valve, fixed to the hooked car-sadle, which opened in the bottom by a pin and dropped the dung where it was necessary. On these sledges they carried home their peats in other baskets of a square form and of such capacity as to hold a horse’s load; but where the road was so steep that the car could not be used, they adopted small baskets of the same form, fixed on the horse’s sides to the hooked car-sadly. In many parts of the Highlands, these sledges are still employed for carrying grain and hay, as well as peats; especially where the roads are so rugged and uneven as to render the use of carts impracticable. however censurable this practice may appear to a stranger, yet in some situations it is unavoidable; and at first sight it would seem incredible, with what dispatch and safety the people perform their work, and also with fewer hands than carts or wagons would require. Sledges are indeed going out, and ought to be so, where the cross-roads in a county or the by-roads in a farm are passable by carts. But notwithstanding every improvement which the roads have undergone; the principal lines of communication having deservedly claimed the first attention of the public; this has hitherto left the roads in other situations, in such a state, especially where the country is rocky or hilly, that carts would be overturned every moment. Distant carriages in every part of this county, where the journey is on the king’s highway, are universally performed by carts.
It is to be hoped, if the wagons used in the moor-lands of Yorkshire could be introduced with advantage into the Highlands of Scotland, as Mr Marshall says they can, that the Board will favour the county with a drawing of one, accompanied with directions how to use it.
It was deemed unnecessary to give a long description or any drawing of these uncouth implements, as they are mostly exploded, and gradually give way to modern improvements. They were only used through necessity, arising from the peculiar circumstances of the country, and must disappear, when that necessity is removed.
One improvement leads to another. No sooner were the roads attended to, than carts were introduced; and no sooner were lessons in husbandry learned by common farmers from the proprietors, of whom they held their possessions, or from reading and observing the practice of countries more highly cultivated than their own, than they were emulous to follow the examples set before them, both in the execution of their work and in the construction of the various implements they employed: and we begin to be astonished at this day, how the farmers, even about the middle of this century, could work with such homely utensils, in the way of their possession, or keep themselves alive by the modes of farming practised in the old school.
Every implement of farming, used almost over the whole county, is now formed after the most approved models known in Britain in the construction of which, such a quantity of iron is annually consumed, as would have been thought incredible by the grandfathers of the present farmers. In some sequestered corners, especially where the tenants are poor, the landlords oppressive or the soil difficult to be reclaimed, the dawn of improvement is only beginning to appear; but these forlorn spots bear no proportion to the happier districts of the country, where cultivation is cherished by the benignity of the landlord and the industry of the tenantry, and is ascending to its meridian altitude.
The plough, used by many of the most knowing farmers, is that with a chain and curved mould-board generally of cast iron. Some very intelligent farmers, about the east bridge of Earn, reject the chain, but strengthen the beam with two lateral bars of iron, from the muzzle back to the great stilt or handle of the plough.
In Monteith some of the best farmers make use of an improved small Scotch plough, in preference to that with the cast iron mould board invented by Mr Small at Ford, both on account of its lightness, and because it does not throw the furrow of clay-land so much on its back. In stony land, the round share is most in use; in land, which is free of stones, the feathered share is preferred, on account of the neatness of its furrow; and indeed in tough or new land, no other share will cut the roots of grass and weeds, or turn over the surface, with the same ease or equal beauty.
These four kinds of ploughs are drawn each by two horses; but in a great part of the country to which this account refers, the old Scotch plough, drawn by three or four horses, is still in use: and in some places the barbarous custom is not exploded, of yoking four horses a breast, and of driving them by a man going backward. This practice appears very awkward and very much poaches the ground; yet they contend in their own defence, that the horses yoked in this manner act with greater power than otherways; that the ground is in many places so full of large stones, as not to admit the long plough; that the driver, by having his eye at once on the horses and plough, can stop the draught more instantaneously and save the harness (gratis) better than in any other position; that they are under the necessity of keeping small horses, adapted to their pasture in the moors, and require more of them to execute the labour of a plough-gate of land. It is to be hoped, however, that by the increasing cultivation of sown grasses, their food for horses and all other cattle will be more abundant; that a breed of larger horses will be employed; that two-horse ploughs will be made use of, and all arguments in defence of horses yoked abreast become unnecessary. The saving in point of harness and horses, besides having only one man in place of two, is so great and so evident, in favour of two horse ploughs, that they are fast gaining ground, in every district of the county, and it is hoped will soon be universal.
The harrows consist for the most part of fourbars (bulls) with iron teeth. Some are made large enough to be a draught for two horses, which are distinguished by the name of Breakers. The teeth of these are formed like small coulters, having square tops, which are put upward into the bars, contrary to the common method method of pushing the teeth downward. Into that part of the teeth which rises above the bar, there is, in each tooth, an oblong hole, into which a flit-nail is put, that keeps the teeth immoveable are prevents their being lost. This kind of harrow is extremely well calculated for breaking up the large clods of a fallow or any course land. The smaller harrows, with common teeth, are joined together by a coupling iron; and in some instances by a double coupling iron, introduced into Monteith and recommended by Lord Kaimes.
In some places on the Carse of Cowrie and Storming the harrows have what are called riders. The far-bar of the near harrow, (when more than one are yoked together) has three timber-pins fixed in the upper side, which are about six inches long and stand perpendicular. On these three pins is fixed a piece of wood which prevents the far-harrow from riding on the other. Wherever the double coupling iron is used, there is no need of these riders, because it makes all the harrows to rise and fall together, and keeps them from ever starting upon one another.
Rollers have become very common. Most of them are made of stone; others built with frames and loaded with stones; and a few of cast iron. These made of cast iron are more easily turned, because they generally consist of two cylinders, so constructed, that one moves backward, while the other moves forward, at the end of the ridge; which is convenient in rolling red land. With other rollers, which are composed of one piece of timber or stone, the best way is to go round the whole field in the form of a spiral line, where it can be done; and then to continue always going forward without making any short turns. In rolling down grass seeds with barley or oats, this method is preferable, but grass lands may be rolled any way; although rolling ridge and ridge is more tedious even in these; and therefore rolling across the ridges is preferable.
Thrashing of corn by machinery has been practised in this county for nearly half a century; and these machines are now coming fast into use. This 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 Paterson of Castlehuntly, who introduced them into the Catse of Cowrie, has one, which is very uncommon, both for the quantity and excellenec of its work. A farmer in Wester Lundie, near Doune, of the name of Ferguson, is said to gave 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 there 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.
Kilns for drying grain are sometimes made with time-ribs; which was the universal practice about half a century ago; many are made with brick-floors, but the cast-iron floors are daily gaining ground.
Churns, cheese presses and every other utensil of that nature are now made, in most places, after the most approved models.
Two horse carts have gone much into disuse; and are daily losing ground. Mr Mylne of Mylnefield, who had a great experience in this and every other article of rural economy, said that a cart of 22 cubic feet, in capacity, is as easily drawn by one horse, as one of 28 or 30 feet by two horses; this being the common size of carts in the Carse of Gowrie.
The expense of all implements of husbandry is so various in different districts of this extensive county, according to their quality and the neatness of their construction, that it would be difficult and even superfluous to give a detail of the different prices. Persons well skilled in making them have found it their interest to open shops almost in every village; which is an evidence of the good sense of the farmers, and that the obstinacy of prejudice is giving way to the growing taste for improvement.
The average price of a cart properly constructed is from L8 to L9, and of ploughs with a chain and cast-iron mould board, from L2:2 to L3. The common cart may be from L1 11 6 to L2. The price of a threshing mill has been already mentioned, others are much dearer.
very few oxen are noe used for draught, except in the cases or clay land, and even in these districts, much fewer than formerly. The farmers allege, that in critical seasons the oxen are so slow, that they are under the necessity of preferring horses, for the sake of dispatch.

The photographs were taken at Scotland’s farming yesteryear, September 2014 and at other locations.

While hay was traditionally carted loose into towns and cities, new means were developed to compress hay into bales to make it easier to transport. Hay baling presses started to emerge and be more widely iused in the 1890s. By 1908 Henry Stephens’ The Book of the Farm could state about them:

“Much ingenuity and enterprise have therefore been exerted in the devising of hay-presses-additional impetus being given to these efforts by the railway companies offering a reduced rate for carriage when 50cwt or more is packed on to an ordinary railway waggon. For this purpose, such pressure as will pack nearly alb of hay or straw into a cubic foot is sufficient.
At various trials of hay-presses have been conducted throughout the country, and in this way several efficient appliances for the purpose have been brought into notice. Large presses for steam-power have been introduced, but smaller presses for horse- or hand-power are more widely used.”

The implement maker Alexander Ballach started business as an agricultural implement and machine maker in Newton Stewart in the late 1890s. By 1914 he had moved to Leith where he was joined by his sons, Duncan and James; the company was styled as Alex Ballach & Sons. It undertook its business out of Manderston Street. The business was well-known for their wide range of implements and machines, including its combined turnip and manure sower, grain dryers, mills and manure spreaders.

The Banff Foundry was a well-known place for the manufacture of agricultural implements and machines in north-east Scotland. It had been home to a number of companies such as G. W. Murray. and later Watson Brothers.

In 1924 there were to be further changes at the foundry with the emergence of the name of Banff Foundry and Engineering Company Limited. On 11 August 1924 this company became incorporated. Its headed notepaper stated “Banff Foundry & Engineering Co. Ltd, agricultural implement makers and engineers, incorporating G. W> Murray & Co. ltd, and Watson Bros. best 1820.”

This company continued in business until 1951, when the directors passed a special resolution to voluntarily wind up the company. The final winding up meeting was held on 12 January 1962.

Its memorandum provides information on the formation of the new company and its activities:

“The objects for which the company is established are:
(1) To acquire and take over as a going concern the business now carried on at Banff by Robert Wood Hutcheson, Banff, and Alexander Grant, Dufftown, under the style or firm of “Watson Brothers”, and all or any of the assets and liabilities of that firm and with a view thereto to enter into and carry into effect with or without modification a minute of agreement which has already been prepared and is expressed to be made between the said Robert Wood Hutcheson and Alexander Grant of the first part and the company of the second part, a copy whereof has for the purpose of identification been signed by the subscribers hereto.
(2) To carry on business as-
(a) Founders, moulders, workers, fitters, and finishers in iron, brass, copper and other metals.
(b) constructors, repairers, owners, hirers, merchants and workers of agricultural, horticultural and forestry buildings, implements, tools, appliances and machinery.
(c) constructors and repairers, owners, hirers, merchants, brokers, and workers of ships, vessels, boats, docks, wharves, jetties and shipways and all machinery, accessories and appliances used in connection therewith.
(d) constructors, repairers, owners, hirers, merchants, and workers of motor cars, motor lorries and other vehicles, locomotives, locomotive and other wagons, trucks, rolling stock, steam and road rollers and all machinery, accessories, and appliances used in connection therewith.
(e) constructors, repairers and merchants of roofs, bridges, and architectural and structural work in metal or other materials.
(f) constructors, repairers, owners, hirers, merchants and workers of electric, steam, gas, oil, hydraulic, hydrostatic, pneumatic, sanitary and water appliances, machinery, engines, and fittings and all accessories and appliance used in connection therewith.
(g) cartwrights, millwrights, wheelwrights, plumbers, carpenters, joiners, painters and general builders, makers, repairers and merchants of all kinds of fencing, wire, wire-netting and wire-work, metallurgists, iron and steel convertors and galvanisers, workers in wood, stone, brick, rubber and other substances, electricians, and producers and suppliers of electricity for the purpose of light, heat, motive power or otherwise, and manufacturers of and dealers in all apparatus and things required for or capable of being used in connection with the generation, distribution, supply, accumulation and employment of electricity, or gas, or other illuminant, or source of heat or motive power, blacksiths, machinists, and general engineers; draughtsmen, and pattern-makers, ship chandlers and dealers in ships stores, local and coke merchants, timber merchants, dealers in, manufacturers, blenders and refiners of petrol, fuel oil, lubricating oil and all other oils; manufacturers, repairers, merchants, owners and hirers of, and dealers in, all kinds of machinery, engines, boilers, tanks, valves, rivets, bolts, nuts, connections, plant, tools, apparatus and appliances.
And in connection with the above business to carry on any other business whether manufacturing, commercial, industrial, or otherwise, which may seem to the company capable of being carried on conveniently in connection with the above or calculated directly or indirectly to enhance the value of or render profitable any of the company’s property or rights, or which may be calculated directly or indirectly to benefit the company.”

The company had a share capital of £5,000, divided into 5,000 shares of £1 each. It was a small firm, but also one that was a common size for other implement and machine makers in Scotland.

Founding and other activities continued at the Banff Foundry after the Banff Foundry and Engineering Company Ltd wound up. A letter from that company proposed floating a new company known as Banff Foundry & Engineering Co. (1951) Ltd.

The Banff Foundry is a good example of a place where companies changed, as did their businesses, over the years, but where implement making was carried on over a number of generations by different makers.

By 1844 the company of P. & R. Fleming described itself as an iron merchant and ironmongers 29 Argyll Street and 18 Stockwell Street, Glasgow.

The company’s base remained firmly in Glasgow. By 1874 it had a branch establishment at 1 Downhill Place, Patrick. It opened its works in Kelvin Street, Patrick, by 1889. Premises were opened up in Edinburgh, in the Grassmarket, by 1896. It had stands at the Edinburgh and Cupar Corn Exchanges in 1928 – as had a number of the leading implement and machine makers in Scotland.
The company developed a specialist range of trades and manufactures. By the mid 1850s it described itself as smiths and weighing machine makers. The company continued to develop its expertise and trades. By 1889 it described itself as wire fence and gate manufacturers and as having an agricultural implement warehouse. It was to become renowned as a structural engineer. These were to form its major activities until the company passed a special resolution to voluntarily wind up its affairs which it passed on 11 August 1982.

One of the men behind the company was Hugh Howie. In 1893 the North British Agriculturist provided a pen picture of him and his work, as well as that of the company. It is worth quoting at length:

“The firm of Messrs P. & R. Fleming & Co., Argyll Street, Glasgow, of which Mr Howie is the senior partner, has for many years been recognised in the west of Scotland as one of the leading houses for all kinds of agricultural implements. The firm manufacture considerable numbers of agricultural appliances at their works, kelvin Street, Partick, and they also hold sole agencies for the best American and English makers. Their stock includes corn crushers of a very useful description; chaff cutters, potato diggers and riddlers, hay rakes, harvesters of various descriptions, and makes, land rollers, turnip and broadcast seed sowers, ploughs, zigzag harrows, threshing machines, hay balers, pumps &c, as well s a large selection of dairy implements, including cheese vats and presses, cart cans, refrigerators, curd cutters, and improved curd heater and cooler combined, horse and hand churns, separators, weights, &c. In addition to the purely agricultural implements, the firm also do a large business in the manufacture and sale of all kinds of estate requisites such as iron and wire fencing, galvanised hay sheds and roofs, gates, garden seats, lawn mowers, rollers &c. They also do considerably in iron bridges for cart traffic, suitable for country and farm roads, as well as in the fitting up of stables, byres, and farm steadings generally. Some time ago Messrs Fleming & Co. constructed a special galvanised iron steading on the Duke of Argyll’s estate of Roseneath, Dunbartonshire, and at various farms throughout the west of Scotland their iron roofs and sheds have been found most useful in preserving and storing various kinds of agricultural produce. Last year the firm acquired the agricultural implement premises formerly used by Mr Balloch at 16 Graham Square, and since then they have been going even more deeply into the agricultural implement trade, taking up the sale of practically every kind of implement used in farm husbandry. Their store warehouse is one of the signals of Glasgow, being 150 feet long, splendidly arranged and fitted up, and lighted throughout with electric light, Mr Howie has associated with him in partnership his son, Mr Robt. Howie, and Mr jas. McGregor, who both take the active management of the business.”

The North British Agriculturist provides important insights into the work of Hugh Howie and P. & R. Fleming. There are still a number of Fleming byre fixtures an building structures to be seen around Scotland. Look out for them!

The Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement undertook an important survey of agriculture and rural improvement in Britain from 1793 to 1817. Each survey generally focused on a county or a small number of counties.

The accounts contained detailed accounts of the implements and machines used in each county, together with the changes that were being made to them.
The account for Kincardineshire, written by James Robertson, provides insights into the character and state of implements used in that county.

It is worth quoting at length:
“Implements and machinery have no where, all Britain, met with more effective implements of husbandry, than in this county; constructed on principles of great simplicity, they are at the same time, both handsome and durable.

Ploughs
Upon the coast side, chiefly in the vicinity of Stonehaven, or rather of Ury, which set the example, there are still some wheeled ploughs to be seen. But these, though doubtless a great improvement at the time when Mr Barclay introduced them, are too complex to become general,or even to retain the ground they once had. I believe there are few of this kind now renewed, their place being supplied by the improved plough of Small, which is fully as effective in its operation, and less intricately constructed. Small’s plough has itself undergone an alteration, in this county, more adapted to the nature of the soil, which is remarkably stony. The curve of the cast-iron mould-board is made convex at the back part so as to push the stones more readily aside than if the original concavity of that part had been retained. A plough of this kind, with its gear for two horses costs about £4 or 4 Guineas. Nineteen ploughs in twenty are of this construction.

Harrows
Harrows are now beginning to be constructed of five Bills with five iron tyne in each. A pair is generally connected with an overlying bar, moveable at pleasure, so as to set them nearer or farther from each other, as may be required, and which prevents them also from interfering with or riding upon one another. A pair drawn by two horses, under the direction of one man, covers vet correctly nine feet in breadth; or, as in common practice, two pair take sin an eighteen feet broad ridge at a time. A pair of harrows, with all their mounting, costs from one point ten shillings to two guineas.

Rollers

These are universally used; but the greater number are still of wood. Several indeed are of stone. But the stone of this county is not much adapted to the purpose; being either too soft, ad in the case with the red free stone, or too hard to bring into shape, as happens with the pudding stone and the granite. Rollers, with all their mounting, will cost from two to four guineas. They are commonly about six feet long, and from 15 to 18 inches in diameter.

The drag-harrow or brake
This implement is not very generally employed. In a great part of the soil of this county, free and in adhesive, it is not wanted. But in some places, where the soil is deep, and obdurate, it is required, and is there to be seen very strong and powerful, drawn by four, and sometimes by six horses. The price may be stated at from fifty shillings to five pounds.
There are many various kinds of drilling and hoeing machines, in which it is always found, that the less complex they are in construction, the more effective they are in practice.
One of the most ingenious of these is the turnip sowing machine, drawn by one horse, and which is as simple and uncompelled in the construction as we can well suppose such a machine to be, that sows not only two drills at a time, but had a set of rollers that go before and another that follow the seed, and which deposits it also with the utmost accuracy at a depth in the very centre of the drill. It now costs six pounds.

The sowing sheet
This is literally a bed sheet applied to the purpose, and is in very general use. In some places they employ for sowing, a basket covered with leather, and slung about the neck with a leathern strap. This is a most incommodious implement, introduced as an English fashion, and kept up from prejudice. The handsome and light sowing sheet of the Lothians, constructed of less than a yard of linen, and so slender that it may be put in the vest-pocket, has been but lately introduced, and has not yet spread far.

Carts
A great improvement has lately been made upon the art. Instead of the side boards being fastened to the standards with nails, which were for ever shaking loose, these are now attached with small screw bolts, which give a steadiness to the whole fabric that could never have been attained with nails; while the same bolts may outlast many sets of carts, and this become in the end even cheaper than nails. A cart, with its wheels, iron axle, tops, and other gear, costs from twelve to sixteen pounds; and the harness for two horses, seldom less than five pounds more.

In places where the roads are completely made, the single horse cart is beginning to come into se. The large four, six, or wight horse waggon may still be seen at Ury, but was never employed any where else. Indeed that mode of carriage is by no means adapted to the uphill and downhill roads of Scotland; nor perhaps if economy be considered, it is adapted to any country whatever.
All machinery in this county is carefully painted; sometimes brown, sometimes green, but the most common colour is alight blue, particularly for ploughs and the bodies of carts, but the wheels are almost universally painted red.
Among the lesser implements may be mentioned the tramp-pick, here in very general use, but which, I have not observed in the counties farther to the south. This is a kind of lever, of iron, about four feet long, and an inch square in thickness, tapering way at the lower end, and having a small degree of curvature there, similar to the prong of a dung fork. It is fitted with afoot step, about eighteen inches from th lower end, on which the workman presses with his foot when he is pushing it into the ground, or into the hard gravel. At the top oit has a handle of wood like the handle of an augur or wimble. The workman, after having forced the under end of the instrument into the earth with is foot, applies his hands to this handle and bends it backwards with all his force, so as to detach a considerable mass of the earth or gravel, which he is wishing to raise up. It is used chiefly in working the bottom of ditches, where the obdurate subsoil composed of a congeries of hard, compacted gravel, would without this previous loosening by the tramp-pick, be altogether impenetrable by the spade.

Threshing mills
The invention of the mode of threshing corn by machinery is of recent date; at least the successful application of it to business is confined to modern times. The first threshing mill was erected in Mid Lothian was by the late Mr Francis Trells, an Hungarian, about the year 1785 or 1786. Before that time there ere not above two or three of them in Scotland, where they were first brought into use, and where they are more generally employed still, than in South Britain.
At what time threshing mills were introduced into Kincardineshire, I have not been able to find out precisely. But it was not long till they were erected in this county after they were invented. At farthest this took place about the year 1795, within ten years of the time that they were first used in the more southern counties. They are now however getting into very general use in all the larger farms; to which, from the great expense of erection, and the great power required to put them in motion, the application seems to be limited.
To bring down these machines to the level of the lesser class of farms, frequent attempts have been made to adapt them to the power of one horse. But none that I have heard of have fully succeeded, not indeed any under a four horse draught. With that number they perform to admiration. And when a greater number, as six or eight, is applied, the effect is proportionally greater. But these last would be more adapted to the purpose of a parish than a single farm.
In this county there are a few threshing mills that are put in motion by water; and wherever this element can be applied they answer well. There are none driven by steam; though steam engines have everything to recommend the, for the purpose, by the expense. Neither are there any that are driven by the wind. Mills of this description might be cheaper in point of cost; but the uncertainty of going, to which they would be liable, is a great drawback attending them. The greater number are drawn by four or more horses or oxen in each; and of course are upon a scale of expense of from £140 to £150. Thus the use of threshing machines, though extending yearly, has not yet descnded to the moderate means and necessities of the inferior order of farmers, the most numerous class in the shire.
It may be remarked before quitting this subject of implements, that Fanners for cleansing corn have been long used in this county. They now cost about £4, and where threshing machines are used, they are very generally attached to them.

The photographs of implements were taken at the Scottish National Tractor Show, September 2014.

If you were looking to purchase a set of harrows in the 1890s one name that would have come to mind was John Scoular & Co., Crook Smithy, Stirling.

According to the North British Agriculturist in 1893 John Scoular was “the fourth son of the late David Scowler, the well-known plough maker of Forest Mill, Clackmannanshire. Mr Scoular began business on his 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 plains 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.
Think harrow, think Scoular!

If you were a farmer looking to buy a cultivator in 1952 you could choose one from a wide range of makers in both Scotland and England.

Most of the makers were located in southern Scotland. They included Adrolic Engineering Co. Ltd, Clober Works, Clober Road, Milngavie which had a hydraulically mounted cultivator for tractors. It could be war or mid mounted. James A. Cuthbertson Ltd, Station Road, Biggar, also had a tractor drawn cultivator. It had 8 discs fitted with 12 traverse cutters mounted on arms fitted onto a steel body. A. Newlines & Sons Ltd, Linlithgow, had a range of cultivators for the tractor. They included a rigid cultivator with 9 or 11 tines, a heavy type with 7 or 9 tines, spottable for 35-45hp tractors, as well as a hydraulic toolbar mounted cultivator used as a cultivatoing or a 3 row ridging attachment to Niffield, Fordson Major, David Brown, and Ferguson tractors. Geo Henderson Ltd, Kelso, had its “Henderland” for tractor draught.

The Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement undertook an important survey of agriculture and rural improvement in Britain from 1793 to 1817. Each survey generally focused on a county or a small number of counties.

The accounts contained detailed accounts of the implements and machines used in each county, together with the changes that were being made to them.

The account for Inverness-shire written by James Robertson, provides insights into the character and state of implements used in that county.

“The implements of husbandry which are used by the inhabitants of any country, no less than the construction of their houses and the appearance of their ground, are characteristic of the progress which they have made in the knowledge of agriculture, and in their enjoyment of the comforts of life. These improvements are either simultaneous, or so nearly allied in respect of the principle to which they owe their origin, and the time in which they appear in any country, that they are universally found to exist together. Wherever we see the farmers turning up the surface of the earth in a slovenly manner, and employing uncouth and unhandy tools for providing their own food, which is the first care of every living creature, we instantly conclude thatchy are far behind in the line of cultivation. but wherever any of these improvements have made considerable progress, the rest are not far behind.
The general aspect of the county under review, is very much diversified; the genius and industry of the people, and the instruments of their husbandry, are no less so. In some provinces, all the modern improvements invented to facilitate the labours of agriculture, and to beautify the appearance of their lands, are to be seen in the highest perfection; while in other places, no change has taken place in these respects for many generations.
In the islands and western parts of the county, the case-chrom, or spade with the crooked handle, still retains its place in the operations of the rude agriculture there practiced. This is a clumsy, heavy instrument, something in the form of a spade, and of great antiquity. The iron is triangular, resembling that used for casting turfs, having a strong and large socket for receiving a wooden handle, which is not straight, but shaped like two segments of a large circle, joined together and placed in opposite directions, like the figure in architecture, called an ogee.
At a little distance above the socket, the wooden handle has a peg or pin, fixed firmly, so as to answer the right foot, which is employed to aid the hands and to give more power to the instrument, in being driven forward below the surface. From the construction of the cas-chrom. it is evident that it does not go so straight down into the ground as the garden spade: it penetrates more in a direction sloping forward, ad requires two or three efforts before the soil is turned over; but when turned, there is more ground generally taken up than any other spade, now in use, could accomplish. The reason of its doing more execution is obvious, not only because of the breadth of the iron, but also because the lower part of the handle slopes in a horizontal direction, to receive some of the tough sod to be turned over. The triangular point of the iron qualifies this instrument to enter easily among stones; and the coarseness of the surface, and thinness of the soil, enable it to lay over a greater quantity of sod than any other instrument for digging, which is wrought by the foot. It was in great estimation with the common people, who were won’t to employ it even in fields, when the plough might act; but at present it is seldom used, except onground with a rocky bottom, or on the shelves of rocks, where no plough can be used.
In the islands, the people are said still to use ploughs with one handle; for what reason, it is not easy to conjecture, because two handles give in all cases, more command in the direction of a plough, than one. I was informed that in lea or grass ground, where the case-chrom is to be used in digging the soil, they first of all fix an instrument like a coulter, in a frame of wood resembling a plough-beam, in which a horse is yoked, to cut the tough and matted surface into parallel lines, leaving the intermediate spaces of that breadth which the case-chrom can easily turn up. This kind of plough, if it can be called one, seems to be the only subsidiary to the other instrument.
Harrows with wooden teeth, cart-wheels unshod with iron, and without bushes of cast metal to facilitate the motion, tumblers, currants or curates, to carry home corn and hay, baskets for carrying out their dung, another kind of basket for carrying home peats, shades or sledges for particular carriages; and many other instruments of the same rude construction, continue to be used in many districts of this widely extended county. The principal recommendation of these uncouth instruments is, that some of them are well adapted to the state of the roads, or places in that county where there is no road at all; that others of them are cheap to poor people; and that the farmer himself can make and repair them at his own conveniency. At a distance from carpenters and smiths, every man must be frequently at a loss, who has not learned to be handy in these matters. To attempt in this place to describe such rude implements is unnecessary, as there is a hazard that the description might not be understood by those who had never seen them, and that in a few years it would be useless, as it is to be hoped, the objects described will exist no longer.
About 35 or 40 years ago, scarcely could a plough or cart-wright be found in all the county, to make the necessary farming utensils in a sufficient manner, or of a proper construction. In these circumstances, every person, who wanted to improve his land, imported loughs, carts, harrows &c of an improved construction from London, or from the port of Leith. But as the demand for machines of a nicer form, and more substantial make, increased, several young men were induced to go from home, and serve apprenticeships with skilful masters; so that properly-bred smiths are carpenters of all denominations are now settled in most of the low and central parts of the county. owing to the want of proper wood and encouragement, and there being no demand in the Islands and Western highlands, skilful artificers have hitherto declined to go thither.
There are ploughs of various constructions, but that generally used is the improved Scottish one, which is made in the county, of every size, and with or without mould-boards of cast iron, according to the opinion of the employer. On gentlemen’s farms we find large harrows for breaking coarse ground, drill-barrows, rollers, banners, thrashing machines, and carts of different constructions, with every other agricultural instrument employed by farmers in any part of Scotland. But very few of the common rank of tenantry, have shown an inclination to adopt the style of dressing their ground in a manner which renders these implements requisite.
The late Mr Davidson of Canary, was the first to construct a thrashing mill which was driven by horses. He imported all the parts of the machinery from Leith, and brought the tradesman at the same time to join the parts together, and set the machine to work: Mr Forbes of Culloden, Mr Robertson of Inches, Governor Stuart at Fort gorge, Mr Grant at Rothiemurchus, Major fraser of Newton, Mr Anderson, minister at Kingussie, Mr Mitchell at Gordon-hall, and no doubt many other improvers in various parts of the county, have not only thrashing-machines, but many other implements of husbandry, which are used in the southern counties. Mr Young, formerly mentioned as having several Spanish sheep, showed me a machine in the form of a brake harrow, drawn by one horse, with two handles, for cleaning couch-grass and other fibrous weeds from ploughed land. Its execution is very great, not only in cleaning and pulverising the soil, where the ground is level, and free of obstructions. Machines area also made in the eastern districts of the county, for bruising the succulent tops of furze to make provender for horses, ins reasons when the crop of grain is hot, and straw and hay scanty. The year old shoots of this plant afford a convenient substitute at a small expense, which is at the same time rich and wholesome food. The common class of farmers, who have no machines for that purpose, heat these tops of furze with the flail; by which means their horses, it is said, with very little other subsistence, are enabled to carry on the labours of the spring.

The photographs of the “traditional” implements were taken at the Highland Folk Museum, Newtonmore.

One of the renowned tattle planters from the time of the First World War was the two row “Richmond” potato planter, made by John Wallace & Sons, Paton Street, Dennistoun, Glasgow.

In 1915 the planter sold at £15 15s; a single row machine, costing £15, was also fitted with an artificial manure distributor.