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Early Agricultural Machinery

These prints, published in 1969 by © Hugh Evelyn, were drawn by Michael Partridge. They are 34 x 23 cm (13 ½ ″ x 9 ½ ″) on high white matt heavy paper (138 g/m2). Shown here are scans of the prints.
These prints are STANDARD size. See shipping charges for up to 10 prints at Shipping & Returns

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Mann’s Reaping Machine, c. 1830
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Marquis of Tweeddale’s Ploughing Engine, 1857
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Mr. Vaisey’s Mole Plough, c. 1790 and
Warwickshire Prize Plough, c. 1850
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Jethro Tull’s drill, c. 1700
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies Straw Burning Portable Engine, c. 1900
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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2 Horse Drawn Hoes, c. 1860
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Combined Swath Turner and Side Delivery Rake, Jarmain, c. 1920
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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One Row Seed Drill, c. 1900
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Samuelson’s New Patent ‘Omnium’ Self-Raking Reaping Machine, 1877
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Blackburn Digger, 1857
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Howard’s Improved Winding Engine, 1867
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Ransomes Four-Furrow ‘Key-Conqueror’ Disc Plough, 1919
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Austin Tractor, 1920
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Overtime Tractor, 1917
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Moline Motor Plough, 1917
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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Ransomes, Head and Jefferies, Patent Double Plough with Subsoiler c.1870 and
Cuthbert Clarke’s Draining Plough c. 1760
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Early Agricultural Machinery 1700-1920

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The Plough is a Modern Invention

Mr. MacArthur of Luib, Skye, using a caschrom in the 1950’s
(Photo by Hope MacDougall from the collection at The MacDougall of Dunollie Preservation Trust, Oban, Argyll and Bute)

Tillage of the ground began about 12,000 years ago. The first farmers lived in the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East. The earliest crops were peas and chickpeas, lentils, bitter vetch, flax, barley and early forms of wheat.
Crops require preparation of the land – tillage. Yet the plough is a modern invention. Its precursors included the caschrom (Gaelic “cas-dhìreach”) or “foot-plough” (see image) used in the north west of the Scottish Highlands until quite recently. The Peruvians use(d) a similar device called the chaki taklla and the aboriginal Māori’s the kō. When man discovered how to pull such a device through the ground and then have a horse or a bullock do so the first ploughs as we know them had arrived.
These prints illustrate the progress in agricultural equipment developed from that point – particularly in the late 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century and the early motor tractors. We may soon be approaching a time when farming can be conducted from a room with a keyboard and a screen.
Yet, despite the industrial revolution in the UK, it was the density of farm labour in England in the 19th century that slowed the development of equipment here and the dearth of labour in North America that accelerated it there.