Farm Hands
Bread Making
Read the article describing how bread is made starting from when the fields are first being plowed.
Read the article describing how bread is made starting from when the fields are first being plowed.
Back in the 19th century you could not just go to the store and pick out a loaf of bread from the 20 or more varieties of bread. They made their own bread. In order to make the bread they first had to knead the dough. Here is a video showing modern ways to knead dough. This is the same as they have kneaded dough for thousands of years.
Woodworking
By late 1800s most furniture was made in a factory, but some small, easy to put together items were made at home. People who build things from wood are called carpenters. Carpenters would help build houses and furniture. Before lumberyards, people would cut down their own trees and shape the wood they needed for things like boards, shingles, and pegs. |
The following are some of the common tools that would be used by a carpenter. The first is called a froe, which is a tool for cleaving wood by splitting it along the grain they would use a mallet (image 2) to help split the timber. The third tool is called a shaving horse. The Germans called the shaving horse a Schnitzelbank. The Schnitzelbank (shaving horse) is made up of a vice and workbench. A foot clamp holds the work piece securely in place. The person using it sits in place and places their feet on the clamp. These are typically used to create a round piece along a square piece such as a chair leg. A draw knife (image 4) is used to shape wood while removing shavings. The draw knife is usually used to shape the wood with working with a shaving horse. The last tool is the hand drill, they are usually fifteen inches or less in length, and are best suited for drilling holes in wood and light metals, and are most effective when used by a worker whose body is positioned above a work piece. They work best when used at high speeds and are especially useful for accurately drilling small-sized holes without damaging drill points.
Watch this short video to see how a Schnitzelbank is used.
Plowing
The plow was the major farm implement of the nineteenth century. A strong plow was needed to break up the soil to prepare for planting. At the end of the video you will see them discing the field after it was plowed. The process of discing breaks up the turned soil and sod.
The plow was the major farm implement of the nineteenth century. A strong plow was needed to break up the soil to prepare for planting. At the end of the video you will see them discing the field after it was plowed. The process of discing breaks up the turned soil and sod.
This is a wooden moldboard plow. The moldboard is covered with iron strips to slow wear on the moldboard and prevent soil from sticking to it. It has an iron share connected to the drawbar (or beam) with an iron colter (or cutter). The plow was the most important piece of equipment on a farm during the 19th century. Used to break up and turn soil for planting crops, a whole day was required to plow 1-2 acres of land with a moldboard plow. Oftentimes a farmer would not personally own a plow as they were considered to be expensive. Generally, a farmer who owned a plow would hire it out to those in need, in exchange for labor or goods. Occasionally, a community would pool resources to purchase a plow.
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These are two other tools that could be used to plow the field without the power of a horse or oxen. The first image is a pull hoe which has the blade set at approximately a right angle to the axis of the rod used as a handle. The user forces the blade into the ground with a downward chopping action and then pulls the blade towards them. A pull hoe can easily be used manually to cultivate soil to a depth of several inches. It is not easy to use a pull hoe to cultivate and remove weeds from only the surface layer of the soil. The pull is an ancient tool and farmers soon found that using animals to pull a tool through the ground for plowing was much more efficient.
The second image is of a high wheel cultivator. To use this tool you push it forward and as you do so it cultivates the ground with the blade that is built in. High wheel cultivators were used in rows where the farmers couldn't get a horse drawn cultivator through, most often in gardens. |