Cambios

== Implements for working the land ==

Barandiaran notes that the opinion of Th. Lefebvre<ref>Th. LEFÈBVRE. ''Les modes de vie dans les Pyrénées Atlantiques Orientales''. Paris: 1933, pp. 208-210.</ref>, who argues that the claim that use of the spade in the Basque Country dates back to the 16th century, when corn began to be grown, lacks merit. He believes it to be implausible that the introduction of this new cereal from The Americas would end the use of the plough to work the land to grow wheat and other cereals. The farm labourer, accustomed to work his land with the old ''goldea ''(plough'') ''pulled by cows or oxen, would be unlikely to turn their back on this method to perform the hardest farm work with their own brute force. Furthermore, ethnologists in general believe that the spade was prior to the plough or ''goldea'' in the Basque Country.

The hoe has been the most widely used implement by farm labourers<ref>As Barandiaran explained, the hoe seems to have been one of the oldest tilling tolos. At the Bidartea dolmen, from the Neolithic period and located near to the Otzaurte pass (Zegama-G), a polished stone ítem was found whose shape and cut is similar to a hoe blade. In Basque, the noun itself “aitzur” seems to mean “Sharp cutting stone”, which would refer back to a time when the implement was made out of stone.</ref>. Produced in the past by local farriers, it is the tool that is the epitome of farm work. It was formerly used to break up the land to be used for crops. When someone wanted to appropriate a sandbank formed by alluvium soil in the backwater of a river, they would just have to give one or more blows with the hoe on its still intact surface to be acknowledged as the owner. Our respondents said that it is the tool used for all tillage work. The majority of times both hands are used to work it. They are different models that differ in size, shape, use or function.

''Larre-aintzurra'' is a hoe, whose blade generally measures 28 cm long and 11 cm wide on the cutting or sharp edge. Its ring sometimes has a cubic protrusion or heel called ''aintzur-burua'' on the opposite side of the blade. The handle is 80 cm long. It is used to clear uncultivated land, in other words, the first turning over of the new earth, ''luberria'', and in general, to dig and turn over the soil or also to break up hard and stony soil. The heel can be used as a hammer if necessary. There were hoes with the ring on the arch of the blade and there were ones with it within the arch itself. The first were imported from Bera (N); others were manufactured by the local farriers and from other towns of Labourd.

{{DISPLAYTITLE: XII. TRADITIONAL FARMING EQUIPMENT}} {{#bookTitle:Agriculture in the Basque Country|Agricultura_en_vasconia/en}}