Far eastern style ox plowing

[bivol]

hi!

this thread is about systems of plowing with a single ox as used in china korea japan, etc. it’s characterized by a single animal pulling a light moldboard plow in smaller fields.

in my opinion this system has some distinct advantages over the western style of plowing.
these are the quickness to train the untrained adult animals to pull a plow using this system,
the ease of control over the animal,
and the method being very suitable for smaller fields, gardens, allotments, and for people who have little land but would still like to avoid manual digging of the garden.

comparison:
in the west it’s usually two oxen that pull the plow. this means the communication is:
1.between oxen themselves
2. between the teamster and each ox individually
3. between teamster and the team as whole

western-style of plowing can loosely be divided into plowing with an ard plow (square fields, zigg-zagg pattern),

after introduction of the moldboard, a heavy and clumbersome plow, more animals were neccesary to pull it, hence long field made sense. this tradition survived to this day in the west.
and with the moldboard even more complex systems are developed, ones that force oxen to think even more to think (keep in furrow, check on the teammate, listen to the teamster, stop at the end, turn, walk, enter the furrow again, stop, rest, walk on again)
and the ox is in its nature more contempt with full filling simple tasks without much to think about.

in contrast, the chinese system is amazingly simple.

one animal is enough to plow a smaller field, or a flooded field where the water loosened the soil.

technology – a single ox pulls the light homemade moldboard plow yoked to a sling yoke, and driven by the teamster from behind using nasal control via rope and a whip.

there are two basic methods, depending on the shape of the field:

first method is made to plow small square fields.

the ox is driven down the furrow, and, at the end, turns only 90 degrees and continues to pull straight ahead, and then at the end, he turns again 90 degrees. he’s basically walking and pulling the plow on all four sides of the square field, working from outside to the center of the field evenly.

other is for plowing narrow fields: there the ox is pulled to the left long enough to enter the furrow and go back again. in a sense it’s the same: plowing from outside to the middle.

the system is in its base very simple: only go and left are used.
the ox actually doesn’t stop; he’s just turned 90 degrees at the end of the furrow, and made to proceed down the furrow in front of him.
the ox can go “to the center” turning left, left, ect… or “from the center”, ox turning right after every furrow, so the rope is on the right side of the ox.

the only communication is ox-teamster

commands – there are actually only two commands in use: “go” and “left”. and none is a verbal command.

the “go” command is hissing.
there are distinct advantages to hissing than to verbal commands. first, hissing is quiet, no need to yell or constantly keep talking which can be tiring.
second, the ox is used to non-verbal sounds so he won’t pay unnecessary attention to the teamster if he keeps chatting with someone.

when the when it comes to the end of the furrow, the driver, without voice command, tugs its nose rope (dangling on the left side of the ox), and making the ox turn. after a short while the ox learns to turn on its own when he’s at the end of a furrow.

nose rope control with a single line
the rope leads to the nose rope and is usually dangling to the left side of the ox. if you’d want to turn right you’d simply flung the rope over its back to the right. this would also signal the ox you’re about to make him turn right, so he’d be prepared. sure more prepared than if you’d have two ropes the ox doesn’t know which one you’re going to pull next. having a single rope calms the animal as it knows there you’ll going to turn him. but here it’s not necessary.
and since the rope is tied from the nose to the back of the head, so when one pulls, it doesn’t hurt as much as when the pull would come to the nose only, but it is strong enough to make the animal listen.

training-

training is done on sight by two people, one leading the animal (via nose rope) down the field to make the furrow, and the other guiding the plow, holding the nose rope and occasionally urging the animal with the whip and hissing.
the only thing the ox actually has to learn is to walk in the furrow!
all other things, walking and turning are aided by the teamster.

the animal is supposed to pull the plow from day one, although it’s advised that soft animals are started on light or previously plowed soil, so they harden up gradually. with a better western yoke it would i guess be easier on the animal.

here are some examples:

ox plowing

horse plowing by this method

buffalo plowing a narrow field

hope you enjoyed!

[mathuranatha]

Good Post:)

[Nat(wasIxy)]

I do certainly enjoy working a single ox personally, not sure why there is such emphasis on pairs in western ox culture? Ploughing a flooded field in this way seems a good idea!

[bivol]

@Ixy 19810 wrote:

I do certainly enjoy working a single ox personally, not sure why there is such emphasis on pairs in western ox culture? Ploughing a flooded field in this way seems a good idea!

there are a few reasons:

1) historical heritage; we’re simply driving oxen in pairs because “it was always done”.

in the beginning, the chinese also hitched their oxen in pairs.
but, when they started cultivating rice in flooded fields, the nature of plowing wet mud led to the development of the chinese tilt-moldboard plows (that is, a plow which you must tilt to the side to throw a furrow), and they were still lighter (so not to damage the rice paddy and not to fall into the mud) and used on soft paddy soil, or mud which made it easier on the animal.

this (light plowing tool and, compared to the heavy soils of Europe, little soil resistance), coupled to great population density (and lack of food for more animals), was what introduced plowing with a single ox.

2) technology:

1. we had no singletree up untill the medieval times.
without the singletree, the only efficient way to harness the power of the animals was to work them as a pair and tie the pole of the plow or cart to the yoke.

2. the european moaldboard plow was developed for plowing moist heavy grasslands, basically to plow under the grasses which always kept returning when an ard was used. chinese dealt with weeds by flooding the fields, while we needed a big tool to dig them under.
so, eu. moldboard was a large heavy tool that needed far more than even a single team to pull.

so, there was no interest to hitching up a single ox. it was simply too weak for any plowing, esp. with out moldboard.

our fields were bigger and population density was lesser than in china, so we had larger pastures, in most places.

second, for smaller plots oxen were – simply bred smaller, so they would as a pair be small enough to feed as a pair, like in peru.

[mathuranatha]

We found a single bullock and a narrow cart was so much safer on the road with cars and trucks etc.Its possible to keep right over out of harms way .Turning , backing , parking its all easier . Less water to carry , less shoes, and if you use your strongest bullock one animal seems 2/3 or even 3/4 as strong as a pair .
–mat —

[CharlyBonifaz]

that’s the same effect as in horses or people:
two of them don’t add up to twice the power, you always loose some….

[dlskidmore]

@bivol 19820 wrote:

2. the european moaldboard plow was developed for plowing moist heavy grasslands, basically to plow under the grasses which always kept returning when an ard was used. chinese dealt with weeds by flooding the fields, while we needed a big tool to dig them under.
so, eu. moldboard was a large heavy tool that needed far more than even a single team to pull.

So are you saying this method is not practical in typical European/American soil? Or is there a plow that can turn a smaller amount of heavy soil at a time and stay light enough for a single ox?

[bivol]

@dlskidmore 19840 wrote:

So are you saying this method is not practical in typical European/American soil? Or is there a plow that can turn a smaller amount of heavy soil at a time and stay light enough for a single ox?

it isn’t so much that plowing with smaller plows isn’t practical in Europe/America, the technological development led to different design whatsoever in the west.
to see the plows in question check out this site. the plows stayed this way pretty much till second agricultural revolution in 18th century.

in short, yes there is.
either a modern small one horse plow or one of those homemade chinese plows, seen them plow on clay soil.

i was referring to the beginnings of moldboard technology, which needed to be downsized in east, and in the west, the people using it thought that only a big strong tool could do the job. so untrue, but oh well. here you have some pics.

here is a european light tilt-moldboard plow, which is often referred as an ard, i think wrongly. this is a donnerupland plow, that was tilted (evidence: more worn-off one side of the iron blade) while plowing to produce a furrow.

this is the orig site.

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