In this room are exposed the tools used since centuries until
the '50s, for the ploughing and the sowing. The wood plough
without mouldboard was chiefly used to draw drills and to till
land; the wood plough with mouldboard was used to set up the
soil for the sowing.
It was pulled by a couple of yoked oxens.
At the beginning of the XX century the iron plough, which not
all the farmers may buy, appears, that's why often more families
put together their savings to buy one in partnership.
The spwing was made by broadcasting: skilled people, walking
with regular steps and gestures, threw the wheat which was subsequently
covered passing on the ground with the harrow.
In June the wheat reaping started. It was a circumstance of
strong aggregation between the farmers which exchanged the "aid"
to have the feeling to work more and to get less tired.
At dawn they already where in the fields and, after having tied
the animals with long ropes to a tree to allow the pasture,
they sharpened the sickles with the whetstone which was always
kept dry in a horn filled with water hanging from the belt.
Then they put the rudimentary fingers-saving tools that each
of them built by himself, suitably cutting out pieces of reed
of the same diameter of the fingers.
They crossed themselves on the forehead and after uttering with
loud voice "name of God", as the ancient crusaders
did at the beginning of the battle, they bended their back expressing
their good wishes about the goodness of the crop and started
the cutting of the wheat, which was first placed on the ground,
then tied in sheafs and finally, in the evening, piled in stacks.
For the reaping was used the sickle. The wheat, cut at the height
of 15-20 cm and gathered in lumps, was put together in sheafs
tied with a handful of the same wheat.
The threshing was made in the farmyard. The animals turned on
the sheafs of corn to break the spikes and to let the wheat
come out of them.
Many farmers did this operation by the flail (tool made by two
wood sticks united by a rope used to beat the wheat). The stages
of the separation of the straw from the wheat, the winnowing
and the sieving followed. Before the coming of the combine harvester,
the reaping always was a collettive celebration. The small grindstones
were used to grind the wheat at home, when it was impossible
to go to the mill.
In this area of the museum are also exposed hoes, sickles, different
kinds of pitchforks to pick up the hay or the straw, harnesses
for draught horses, packsaddles for beasts of burden, used to
transport wood, sacks, baskets, etc.