Ploughs

From: White, Adrian <awhite_at_intera.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 95 14:49:58 GMT

Having followed the discussion on the different types of plough, I think that we may have missed the mark. As far as I am aware (which is going back to secondary school) the main factor which allowed the exploitation of heavy clay soils was the shape of the plough, not the material. The early scratch ploughs used a straight blade or point (which may be of wood, wood covered in bronze or solid bronze) and were widely used by the Mediterranean and middle eastern civilisations. It was the later development of the mouldboard plough, which effectively folds the top layer of soil towards the sides of the furrow, that allowed the Saxons et. al. to settle along the bottom of river valleys.

I have a quick question for Martin Crim concerning the oases pack he sent me (thanks it will come in very useful) which I thought I would open up. He mentions the Lunars as importing maize into Prax and that maize is now a staple crop for many of the native farmers. I am curious to know, why maize? Is there any particular reason, is maize associated with farmers of Yelmic stock (the cereal of the sun perhaps) ?

The reason I ask is because I have always had a mental association between maize and the RW Central America, whereas I envisage the oases people as being more similar to those scattered permanent settlements found along the edge of the Sahara and highlands of Arabia. Where the agriculture is dominated by a three tier system along the wadis (date palms, fig trees and vegetables growing in the same irrigated gardens) with wheat, barley and vines grown around the edges.

Adrian

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