The Gazetteers Department

A large number of agricultural implements are in use in the disrict. Most of these are made of indigenous materials with local labour. Their shape and form were dictated by the necessities of the time when they were invented and, a little, if any, change has taken place since then. Ploughs, harrows, seed drills and hoes are the main implements used in the district. Hand tools in use are khurpi, vila, phavade, kudali, tikav, etc. The age-old wooden plough is recently being replaced by the iron plough and the old mot by the oil engine in a few cases.

Plough

The plough is of two kinds, the large or the thorla nangar and the small plough called nangri. The wooden plough is now disappearing. This plough, opens a traingular furrow to a depth of about 0.15 to 0.20 m. (six to eight inches). It tears open the soil. This requires more effort than the cutting action of the iron plough. The iron plough opens a rectangular clear furrow by throwing the soil over with the wooden board attached to it. There being no wooden board in the wooden plough the soil loosens and is lifted by the phal without being turned upside down. Thus among the two the iron plough is advantageous. The number of bullocks drawing a plough depends upon the kind of the soil.

Seed Drill

Seed drills used in the district are of three types: the four-coultered drill called the pabhari, the three-coultered called the tiphan and the two-coultered called the duphan. There is also a single tubed drill in use in the district called mogha or moghan. Except for the distance between two coulters there has been no change in the seed drill. It has teeth or phans communicating with tubes or nalis which end in a wooden bowl called chade. The sower keeps the seed bowl uniformly filled and the seeds pass through the tubes into the furrows made by the teeth. The number of bullocks required to draw the seed drill depends upon the kind of the soil. The seed is then covered with soil by rolling a log of wood.

Harrow

The harrow is locally called as vakhar or kulav. It is a simple implement with an iron blade (pas) held in the lower end of the prongs fixed with a ring (vasu). A pole is fixed on the left side of the centre of the head piece. The harrow is locally manufactured and is put to use in different ways, viz., as a light plough, a harrow clod crusher, weeder, leveller and for earthing up also.

Hoes

There are two types of hoes. One is the slit hoe (kolpe or phatiche kolpe) and the other the entire blade hoe (duba). The bullock-drawn hoe has four hoes and is drawn by two to four bullocks. As the bullock hoe is worked, each hoe passes on either side of the row taking the young crop between the opening in the hoes. This helps the interculturing of four lines at a time. The slit hoe is used as long as the plants are young and can pass through the slit in the blade of the hoe.

The entire blade hoe (duba) is used for removing weeds when plants grow in height. As the hoe is worked the blade passes between. two rows. At a time two lines can be taken up for the operation.

There are a number of hand tools in use in the district. The axe (kurhad) is used for cutting wood. The smaller axe called the pharshi is used for chopping down twigs of trees. Pick-axe (kudali) is used for digging, spade (phavade) is used for removing earth. Masker (pekte) is used for making crop lines while sowing the seed. Weeding hook (khurpi) is used to remove weeds. This is especially useful when it is not possible to operate bullock-drawn hoe. Its blade is very small, about 0.05 to 0.08 m. (two-three inches) in length and thus labour required per acre is much more. It is also used for stirring the soil. The sickle or vila is used for reaping crops and grass. Crowbar (phar or sabal) is used for digging holes. Datale is used for collecting weeds and the crop under threshing. All these tools are generally manufactured locally. However, many of the cultivators cannot afford to buy a plough and a seed drill.

Water-lifts

Water is lifted from the well for irrigation by a leather bag called mot. Iron mots are also in use but they are very few. The old mot is slowly being replaced by the oil engine and the pumping set. With the advent of electricity even these will be replaced by pumps run on electric power.

Bullock-cart

The bullock-cart usually known as the bail gadi or bail bandi is widely used for transport in rural and semi-urban parts of the district. At a number of places these are the only means of transport. The bullock-cart is very useful in carrying large quantities of grass and manure and transporting field produce to the markets. Its whole body is made of wood (generally of babhul) except the rims, the axle and the bush and idi. The spoked wheels are about four feet in diameter.

Sugarcane Roller

The wooden roller of the former times is now rapidly being replaced by the iron sugarcane roller. There are three rollers which crush the cane. The three solid iron cylinders are turned into spiral screws which work in each other. To the upper end of the screw? is fixed a lever. To work the mill, the lever is joined to the yoke of bullocks which are driven round the mill. As the cane is crushed the juice drops into a trough fixed in the ground just below the rollers and thence it is taken to another vessel for further operations.