Jag

Some interesting points, but the general point that ploughing in readiness for sowing seeds England is generally an April/May activity as opposed to something done all round stands.

'Milkmaids' may be another misleading term. I'm sure old women also milked cows. But because of the cowpox thing dairy workers may have been less pockmarked than the general population.

But are there nouns to describe other tasks; eg 'seed scatterer'? I think 'harvester' is a pub chain but was it used to describe the workers?

Totting up the relative frequency would be interesting but there would be controversy about which songs to use. Gammon discusses how various workmans' tools incuding some musical instruments are used as the basis forbawdy metaphors; I'm thinking the plough is one of these. But he doesn't I don't hink attempt a relative frequency.

Roud does give examples of ordinary people making up songs, based upon historical documents. I think one instance of this is in the 17th century chapter.