(11). ‘The _plough-foot_. This is an iron implement, passed through a mortise-hole, and fastened at the farther end of the beam by a wedge or two, so that the husbandman may at his discretion set it higher or lower; the use being to give the plough earth or to put it from the earth, for the more it is driven downward the more it raises the beam from the ground and makes the irons forsake the earth, and the more it is driven upward, the more it lets down the beam and makes the irons bite the ground.’ Fitzherbert well describes it as ‘a stay to order of what deepness the plough shall go.’ The word _ploughfote_ occurs in Piers Plowman, B. vi. 105; see my notes to that poem, vol. iv. p. 161. This part of the plough was also called a _plough-shoe_ (in Latin, _ferripedalis_); see Rogers (as above), p. 538. In a modern plough, the plough-foot is generally replaced by small wheels. I may remark that it was placed in front, before the coulter.
If we compare the preceding account with that given by Fitzherbert, we shall see that the two nearly agree. Fitzherbert’s _plough-beam_, _plough-sheath_, and _plough-tail_ are Nos. 1, 2, and 3 above; his _stilt_, _rest_, and _shieldboard_ are Nos. 6, 7, and 8; his _rough staves_, _plough-foot_, _share_, and _coulter_, are Nos. 5, 11, 10, and 9. But he has three additional terms, viz. the _sharebeam_, which is the wooden frame for the _share_, and is called by Markham the _plough-head_ (No. 4). Secondly, the _fen-board_, i.e. _mud-board_, covering the _left_ side of the plough, and fastened to the _left_ of the sheath and the _left_ hale, much as the shield-board is fastened to the _right_ of the sheath and the _right_ hale. Lastly, the _plough-ear_, defined as ‘three pieces of iron, nailed fast to the right side of the plough-beam,’ for which poor men substituted ‘a crooked piece of wood pinned fast to the plough-beam.’ What was the use of this appendage we are not expressly told; but it seems to have been used for fastening the trace to, for draught; see =4.= 34.
Fitzherbert also notices the _plough-mal_, i.e. plough-mall or plough-mallet (l. 55), which seems to have consisted of a head of hard wood and a ‘pynne,’ or handle, and to have been loosely stuck into the plough-beam by passing the handle through ‘an augurs bore,’ i.e. through a hole bored in the beam by an augur for this especial purpose. This was no real _part_ of the plough, but only a tool conveniently kept at hand. He does not, however, mention the plough-staff (or akerstaff), which was ‘a pole shod with a flat iron, the purpose of which was to clear the mould-board from any stiff earth which might cling to it while the plough was at work’; Rogers, as above, p. 539. This was originally held in the right hand (see my notes to P. Plowman); but I think it likely that, when a second handle, or _stilt_, came into use, the plough-staff was given up. Wright’s Prov. Glossary gives “_mell_, _mellet_, a square piece of wood fitted with a handle, a mallet.”