Egan Farm

Egan Farm - Tools

The farm identity of the site is expressed in many of the tools tossed aside in a metal midden. A broken hay fork and broken scythe attest to the growing of hay and frequency of rocks. Similarly two reaping hooks or sickles were used to harvest oats and the round-blade spade likely dug up potatoes.

The flat-bladed shovel may have removed ashes from the nearby sugar furnace for boiling maple syrup, and sap may have been carried in the bucket attached to the pail ear (left of the horseshoe). Was the sap, in turn, carried on a sleigh to which the tongue attachment and ring (lower left) was fixed, by a horse that lost this shoe?

Unknown are the affiliation of the eye-bolt, two-hooked chain with swivel, the 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm stake and the cut nails.

Reaping Hook

Collection: Egan Farm
Object: Reaping Hook
Material: Iron
Period: Mid 19th Century
Date: 1850 to 1870

A smooth curved blade with tang, broken at distal end. Wedge-shaped cross-section. Stamped W. Fox. A reaping hook (smooth blade) or sickle (serrated blade) was used for harvesting oats. In 1861 ten acres of the Egan farm was planted in oats. Immediately after tree clearing oats were sown among the stumps, which would have precluded the use of machinery for harvesting.

Broken Horseshoe with Nails

Collection: Egan Farm
Object: Horseshoe
Material: Iron
Period: Mid 19th Century

This appears to be a horseshoe from a light horse that would have been ridden or used to pull a light sleigh or cutter. The shoe was used and then simply discarded, as the nails that fixed the shoe to the hoof were not removed.