Editing Pitchfork

{{Short description|Agricultural tool}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Two men loading hay onto a rack drawn by tractor (20886793451).jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|Pitching [[hay]]]]

A '''pitchfork''' or '''hay fork''' is an agricultural [[tool]] used to pitch loose material, such as [[hay]], [[straw]], [[manure]], or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin [[tine (structural)|tines]] designed to efficiently move such materials.

The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to the [[garden fork]]. While similar in appearance, the garden fork is shorter and stockier than the pitchfork, with three or four thicker tines intended for turning or loosening the [[soil]] of [[garden]]s.

==Alternative terms==
In some parts of [[England]], a pitchfork is known as a ''prong''.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.abebooks.com/Song-Season-Hundred-Years-Sussex-Farming/18616217008/bd |last=Copper |first=Bob |date=1975 |pages=112 |title=A Song for Every Season: A Hundred Years of a Sussex Farming Family |publisher=Paladin, St. Albans, Hertfordshire |access-date=August 26, 2019}}</ref> In parts of [[Ireland]], the term ''sprong'' is used to refer specifically to a four-pronged pitchfork.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XwAoI3gso1gC |author=Joyce, P. W. |author-link=Patrick Weston Joyce |date=2009 |title=English As We Speak It in Ireland |pages=832|publisher=Read Books |isbn=9781443791649 |access-date=August 26, 2019}}</ref>

==Description==
[[File:CompostBinTube wb.jpg|thumb|A pitchfork with five [[Tine (structural)|tine]]s next to a [[compost]] bin. In this configuration, the pitchfork resembles a [[garden fork]].]]

The typical pitchfork consists of a wooden shaft bearing two to five slightly curved metal [[tine (structural)|tines]] fixed to one end of a handle. These are typically made of [[steel]], [[wrought iron]], or some other [[alloy]], though historically  [[wood]] or [[bamboo]] were used. Unlike a [[garden fork]], a pitchfork lacks a grab at the end of its handle.

Pitchforks with few tines set far apart are typically used for bulky material such as [[hay]] or [[straw]]; those with more and more closely spaced are used for looser materials such as [[silage]], [[manure]], leaves, or [[compost]].<ref name="FarmCollector">{{cite web|url=https://www.farmcollector.com/steam-traction/why-all-pitchforks-are-not-alike |title=Why All Pitchforks Are Not Alike |date=October 1996 |last=Rhode |first=Dr. Robert T. |work=Farm Collector |access-date=February 4, 2016}}</ref>

==History==
In [[Europe]], the pitchfork was first used in the [[Early Middle Ages]], at about the same time as the [[harrow (tool)|harrow]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=McNeill |first1=J. R |last2=Stewart Mauldin |first2=Erin |title=A Companion to Global Environmental History |date=November 2012 |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |isbn=9781118977538 |page=342 |edition=1st}}</ref> These were made entirely of wood.<ref name=FarmCollector/>

In the Middle Ages, pitchforks might on occasion be employed as an [[improvised weapon]] in battle by [[peasants]] unable to obtain a proper weapon.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://medieval-period.com/medievalmen.html |title=Medieval Men |publisher=Medieval-Period.com |access-date=February 13, 2014 |archive-date=August 12, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170812011048/http://www.medieval-period.com/medievalmen.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The visual idiom of a mob of peasants staging a [[revolt]] while armed with just [[torches]] and pitchforks is well-known, if not necessarily historical, and seen or parodied in several works.

==In popular culture==
===Artwork===
[[File:Grant Wood - American Gothic - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[American Gothic]]'', by [[Grant Wood]], 1930]]

Paintings by various artists depict a wide variety of pitchforks in use and at rest.<ref>{{cite web|last=Ritch |first=Alan |url=http://www.hayinart.com/002613.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211020154940/http://www.hayinart.com/002613.html |archive-date=October 20, 2021 |title=Resting in the hay (1592-1900) |publisher=Hay In Art |date=February 6, 2006|access-date=February 13, 2014}}</ref> A notable American work is ''[[American Gothic]]'' (1930) by [[Grant Wood]], which features a three-pronged tool.

===Politics===
[[File:Buonaparte, 48 Hours after Landing. (BM 1868,0808.7157).jpg|right|thumb|Propaganda work by [[James Gillray]] (1803) showing British icon [[John Bull]] holding the head of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] on a pitchfork after a conjectured French invasion of Great Britain]]

Because of its association with peasantry and farming, the pitchfork has been used as a [[populism|populist]] symbol and appended as a nickname for certain leading populist figures, such as [[Benjamin Tillman|"Pitchfork" Ben Tillman]] and [[Pat Buchanan|"Pitchfork" Pat Buchanan]].{{Cn|date=March 2021}}

The Gangster Disciples, a [[street gang]] in the [[Midwestern United States]], use [[Gangster Disciples#Markings and symbols|a three-pointed pitchfork]] as one of their symbols.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gutierrez |first1=Carl D. |title=Asset Protection for the 21st Century |url=https://www.fmi.org/docs/loss/Gangs_and_the_Food_Industry.pdf |website=Food Marketing Institute |publisher=[[Food Marketing Institute]] |access-date=27 August 2019}}</ref>

The [[New Order (Venezuela)|New Order]], a Venezuelan [[far-right]] political party,  used a three-pointed pitchfork as their symbol.{{Cn|date=March 2021}}

===Religious symbolism===
The pitchfork is often used in lieu of the visually similar weapon, the [[trident]], in popular portrayals and satire of [[Symbols and symbolism in Christian demonology|Christian demonology]]. Many humorous cartoons, both [[animation|animated]] and otherwise, feature a [[caricature]] of a [[devil|demon]] ostensibly wielding a "pitchfork" (often actually a [[trident]]) sitting on one shoulder of a protagonist, opposite an [[angel]] on the other.{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}}

The [[Greek mythology|Hellenistic deity]] [[Hades (mythology)|Hades]] wields a [[bident]], a two-pronged weapon similar in form to a pitchfork but actually related to the trident in design and purpose.{{Cn|date=March 2021}}

==See also==
* [[Fork]]
* [[Garden fork]]
* [[Trident]]

==References==
{{Commons category}}
{{Reflist}}

{{Garden tools}}

[[Category:Pitchforks| ]]
[[Category:Gardening tools]]
[[Category:Farming tools]]
[[Category:Edged and bladed weapons]]
[[Category:Early Middle Ages]]
[[Category:Populism]]