Illinois State Museum

• Hand Tools

• Native American Tools

• Horse-drawn Machinery

• Patent Models

• Automated Machinery

Hand Tools in Agriculture

Agriculture was done with hand tools from ancient times until the nineteenth century, when some farmers in The United States and Europe used the new machines that were driven by horse or steam power. Many farmers throughout the world still use hand tools to farm.

Traditional hand tools included tools for every phase of farming. there were canvas bag seeders to sow seeds, scythes to cut the plants, gathering and winnowing baskets in which to carry cut plants, corn huskers and corn shellers to process the grain, along with hundreds of other tools.