Quotes About Horse-drawn plows

Winegrowing lore said rosebushes were planted to serve as early-warning indicators of sickness in the vines. They supposedly were also a leftover tradition from the days when horse-drawn plows worked the vineyards—the thorns encouraged the beasts to make wide turns and thus reduce the potential damage to the stakes and wires that supported the rows.

Tool lists from the fourteenth century indicate that pitchforks, spades, axes, plows, and harrows, which have teeth to break up soil, were widely used. Both plows and harrows could be pushed or pulled by peasants. However, during the Renaissance an increasing number of farms used horses for such tasks, as well as for pulling carts that would take surplus food to market in nearby towns.