and graft, sow beans, set a vineyard, make ditches, hew wood
for a wild deer fence; and soon after that, if the weather
permit, set madder, sow flax seed and woad seed, plant a garden
and do many things which I cannot fully enumerate that a good
steward ought to provide.'[48]

The methods of cultivation were simple. The plough, if we may judge by
contemporary illustrations, had in the eleventh century a large wheel
and very short handles.[49] In the twelfth century Neckham describes
its parts: a beam, handles, tongue, mouldboard, coulter, and
share.[50] Breaking up the clods was done by the mattock or beetle,
and harrowing was done by hand with what looks like a large rake; the
scythes of the haymakers and the sickles of the reapers were very like
those that still linger on in some districts to-day.

Here is a list of tools and implements for the homestead: an axe,
adze, bill, awl, plane, saw, spokeshave, tie hook, auger, mattock,
lever, share, coulter, goad-iron, scythe, sickle, weed-hook, spade,
shovel, woad dibble, barrow, besom, beetle, rake, fork, ladder, horse
comb, shears, fire tongs, weighing scales, and a long list of spinning
implements necessary when farmers made their own clothes. The author
wisely remarks that one ought to have coverings for wains, plough
gear, harrowing tackle, &c.; and adds another list of instruments and
utensils: a caldron, kettle, ladle, pan, crock, firedog, dishes, bowls
with handles, tubs, buckets, a churn, cheese vat, baskets, crates,
bushels, sieves, seed basket, wire sieve, hair sieve, winnowing fans,
troughs, ashwood pails, hives, honey bins, beer barrels, bathing tub,
dishes, cups, strainers, candlesticks, salt cellar, spoon case, pepper
horn, footstools, chairs, basins, lamp, lantern, leathern bottles,
comb, iron bin, fodder rack, meal ark or box, oil flask, oven rake,