'We plough the fields and scatter the good seed'

Above is a line from a familiar harvest hymn from Germany. One that paints a word picture of ploughing as part of the preparation for sowing that good seed on the good ground. However it fails to mention those other pieces of farm machinery once used to prepare a good fine seedbed. The harrow, in various forms, and the grubber

But what is or was a grubber?

The one on display at The Ballance House is a single horse grubber used to break up the ground after ploughing and certainly ensured the man behind the handles slept well that night. It was also much used to dislodge weeds and refresh the soil between drills of potatoes in preparation for moulding with the drill plough. 

In 1847 an agricultural text book described a grubber as an implement of tillage of intermediate character between a plough and a harrow. Especially useful in rougher ground or where deep weed roots are a problem.

Now replaced by high tech rota tillers and multi tillers the grubber has been consigned to rural history along with that broad shouldered ploughman and his Clydesdale horse.

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Reference: 

  • Footsteps in the Furrow by Andrew Arbuckle, Old Pond Publishing.

  • Memories from the Farmyard by Paul Callaghan, FarmWeek columnist, Published by Colourpoint Books, Newtownards, Co Down NI.