cas-chrom

cois-chruim, sf The crooked spade, an implement of tillage peculiar to the Highlands, used for turning the ground where a plough cannot work on account of the stony ground. It is of great antiquity and is described as follows by Armstrong. "It is very inexpeditious in comparison with the plough, eight men being necessary to dig as much with it in one day as a horse would plough in the same time. It is chiefly used for tillage and consists of a crooked piece of wood, the lower end somewhat thick, about two and a half feet in length, pretty straight, and armed a the end with, iron made thin and square to cut the earth. The upper end of this instrument is called the shaft and the lower, the head. The shaft above the crook is pretty straight, being six feet long, and tapering upwards to the end which is slender. Just below the crook or angle, there must be a hole wherein a strong peg must be fixed, for the workman's right foot in order to push the instrument into the earth; while in the meantime, standing on his left foot, and holding the shaft firmly in both hands, when he has in this manner driven the head far enough into the earth, with one bend of his body he raises the clod by the iron-headed part of the instrument, making use of the heel or hind part of the head as a fulcrum. In so doing, he turns it over always towards the left hand and then proceeds to push for another clod in the same form. To see six or eight men all at work with this instrument, standing all on one leg and pushing with the other, would be a curious sight to a stranger. With all its disadvantages, the cas-chrom is, of all instruments, the fittest for turning up the ground in the country, for among so many rocks a plough can do little or nothing and where there are no rocks, the earth is generally so marshy that cattle are not able to pass over it without sinking in deeply." It is of pretty general use in the Western Isles, one man being able to turn over more ground with it in a day than four are able to do with a common spade. Peg of cas-chroin, sgonnan.

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