Title	Plowing with a team of mules
Description	Young man in the foreground plowing with a team of three mules. The background is filled with a haystack, farm buildings, and Wilson County farmland.
Historical Note	This image highlights the importance of the mule to the development of Tennessee's farm economy. They would overtake oxen between 1870 and 1880 to become the state's main draft animals and work stock. Advances in machinery allowed for lighter and more maneuverable plows, and that contributed to the switch from the more powerful oxen to mules and horses. The relatively light wooden plow being used is most likely to be a cultivating plow, rather than a breaking plow.
Date	approximately 1880
Place	Wilson County (Tenn.)
Collection	Looking Back At Tennessee Photograph Collection
Series	Wilson County
Accession Number	1988-017
Subjects - LCSH	Agriculture; Plowing; Mules
Subjects - TGM	Plowing Mules Muleteers Farms Croplands Outbuildings Farm life Haystacks Agricultural facilities Barns Agricultural laborers Agricultural machinery & implements
Owning Institution	Tennessee State Library and Archives
ID#	29643
Negative #	WL137
Digital Type	Still Image
Digital Format	Image/jp2
Media Type	Photographs
Copyright	No copyright - United States: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Ordering Information	To order a digital reproduction of this item, please send our order form at http://tsla.tnsosfiles.com/general/forms/ImagingOrder.pdf to Photo Orders, Tennessee State Library & Archives, 403 7th Ave. N., Nashville, TN 37243-0312, or email to photoorders.tsla@tn.gov. Further ordering information can be found at the following location: http://sos.tn.gov/products/tsla/ordering-images-and-microfilm-digitization .