Scottish agricultural implement 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.

Trade directories of implement and machine makers from the late nineteenth century sometimes include Berwick on Tweed in Scotland. This means that the Berwick on Tweed implement and machine maker William Elder & Sons is included under the heading of Scottish agricultural implement and machines makers.

While firmly associated with Berwick on Tweed, and the Vulcan Foundry, the company sold its implements and machines into the Scottish Borders. The company set up an asociated trading company in Glasgow in the First World War. This was William Elder & Sons (Glasgow) Ltd. However, it did not remain in business for long. After the First World War, it established premises in Scotland. In 1922 they were located at Hope Park, Haddington, and at Newton St Boswells; these premises continued to trade into the early 1960s. By the early 1960s they were also associated with Reston Motor Garage, Motor Engineers, Reston.

One of the major Scottish implement and machine makers was John Wallace & Sons, Graham Square, Glasgow.The company existed in various forms until the late 1960s, when it was absorbed into another much larger company, resulting in the loss of the Wallace name. These forms included: John Wallace & Son; John Wallace & Sons (from at least 1879); John Wallace & Sons Ltd (from 1897); Wallace (Glasgow) Ltd (in 1925); and John Wallace (Agricultural Machinery) Ltd (in 1965). The company was renowned for a wide range of implements and machines including ploughs, turnip sowers, reapers and mowers, potato diggers, iron buildings – there are still a few of them to be seen around the Scottish rally fields.

A key episode in the history of the business took place in December 1896 with the formation of the limited company of John Wallace & Sons Ltd. Its certificate of incorporation was dated 13 December.

The company’s memorandum of association provides insights into the newly formed company and how it was to operate:

“The objects for which the company are established are:
(a) to acquire the business carried on in Glasgow and elsewhere under the name or style of John Wallace & Sons, agricultural engineers and implement makers, Graham Square, Glasgow, and to purchase and undertake the whole of the assets and liabilities of such business upon the terms set forth in an agreement between the said John Wallace & Sons on the one part and James Colquhoun LLD, writer, Glasgow, as trustee for this company, on the second part, dated the twenty-sixth day of December, 1896.
(b) to carry onbusiness as agricultural and general engineers, millwrights and implement makers, and ironmongers, in Glasgow and elsewhere, and to make, buy, sell, produce, alter, and deal in agricultural implements of every kind and description, and generally to carry on any business of a character similar or analogous thereto, or which will contribute to or facilitate the same, or which, by the advance or increase of knowledge or exigencies of labour, may be substituted therefor.
(c) to manufacture and sell, either by wholesale or retail, every description of goods connected with the agricultural industry of the country, and for that purpose to acquire suitable premises, either by building or purchasing the same, and to lease or buy, sell or exchange, land, or land and buildings, free from or subject to any feh-duty, ground, annual rent, tax, reservations of mines and minerals, or any restrictions, conditions, and agreements whatsoever, or subject to any bond, mortgage, or charge or other encumbrance. …”

The capital of the company was to be £40,000, divided into 8,000 shares of £5 each. The first directors were James Wallace, agricultural implement maker, and William Wallace, agricultural implement maker, both of Glasgow.

In this form the company continued until 1920. On 16 July 1920 the company passed a special resolution to wind up the company; this resolution was confirmed on 2 August 1920. Thereafter, the company took on another form, using the same name.

The photographs were taken at the Ayrshire Vintage Rally, July 2017.

There were a number of important developments in potato planters in the second half of the nineteenth century. By 1883 the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland recognised the need to further encourage their development. In that year it ran a trial of them. One of the competitors was Robert Kyd, Coupar Angus with a two row potato planter.

By that time Robert Kydd, Trades Lane, Coupar Angus, was already a well-known agricultural implement maker, recorded from the mid-1870s. He brought attention to his manufactures in the North British Agriculturist on 28 July 1875. He was a regular exhibitor at the Highland Show from 1879 until 1900 as well as a keen competitor of his implements and machines. He entered the Highland Society’s trial of potato diggers in 1881 and the Royal Agricultural Society of England’s trials of potato raising machines in 1888. He also entered the Highland Society’s trial of combined reapers and binders, or lifting and binding machines in 1882.

In the days of horse power one of the most well-known implements in Scottish agriculture was the Hunter hoe for cleaning drills, manufactured by Thomas Hunter & Sons, Maybole.

Thomas Hunter & Sons, Maybole, was one of the celebrated and well-renowned Scottish agricultural implement makers. In 1861 Thomas Hunter was a smith at Maybole. His business developed and flourished and by 1883 his address was given as the “Implement Works, Maybole”. He was joined in business by his sons by 1895. In 1905 the business was located in Alloway Road: the “Alloway Road Implement Works”. The business became a limited company by guarantee in 1920: Thomas Hunter & Sons Ltd. That company was short-lived, becoming Thomas Hunter & Sons (Maybole) Ltd in 1924; it was wound up in late 1927. By 1924 the proprietors were Alex Jack & Sons Ltd, a rival firm, and also another well-known implement and machine maker.