Flail, c. 1850 Cradle Scythe, c. 1860 Man cradling grain, c. 1865 Flailing grain on the barn floor, c. 1820 With the exception of the plow, fields were brought into cultivation and harvested largely by hand tools before 1850. Two essential tools were the flail and the cradle scythe. The cradle scythe was brought into Canada from the US where it had come into general use after the Revolution. Like an ordinary scythe, it cut the grain stalks off near the ground but then "cradled" them as they fell onto its long wooden "fingers". This prevented any dry, over-ripe seeds from falling out of the heads onto the ground. It also deposited the grain stalks in a heap making it easier for the binders, following behind, to tie it into a sheaf. After the stooks were collected and brought to the barn, the seed had to be threshed out of the heads. This was sometimes done by letting the oxen trample it under their hooves. In other cases, the flail was used to beat out the seed grain by swinging it in the air and bringing the short part of the tool down onto the grain. The stalks, husks and seeds would then be swept into a winnowing basket and tossed in the air on a windy day, letting the breeze take the lighter straw and husks away while the heavier seed fell back into the basket. By 1850, small threshing machines were appearing all over the province often driven by horse-power. In the next few years, larger, portable threshers driven by steam engines would be developed. In London, this machinery was built by many firms including Murray Anderson, Elijah Leonard and George White, who came to be known across Canada for his threshing machines and steam engines.