Plow

Plow This ICON OF AGRICULTURE is still a top crop tool for farmers

The plow is a farming tool used to prepare the earth for the seed-sowing season. Plowing has saved farmers time and toil in the fields, and transformed food production.

Did you know? Camels and llamas have been used to pull plows in regions where there were too few horses and oxen.

The handle is held and steered by the farmer.

Ancient ards

Plowing has been an integral part of the farming calendar since ancient times. Turning the earth in the fall prepares the ground for seed sowing in the spring. Around 5000 bce, early civilizations broke the ground with an antler or branch to cultivate crops. This developed into a pointed wooden plow called an ard. The ancient Egyptians attached the ard to a beam harnessed to two oxen and got to work plowing the Nile valley.

It paved the way for...

In 1700, Englishman Jethro tull invented the seed drill. This device dropped seeds down a chute into a furrow in organized rows called drills.

Cast-iron progress

During the 1800s, the design of the plow improved when the wooden point was flattened into a blade of iron. Called a share, this blade sliced into the ground, loosening and turning the soil. The result was a neat strip of soil, or furrow, running through the land. The plow set the stage for the agricultural revolution, reducing the effort required to produce large quantities of crops. Metal blades are still used to cut furrows today.

By the way... Medieval plows were so heavy that it was not uncommon for eight oxen to pull a single machine.

Share blade cuts and loosens soil.

A horse-drawn reaper was patented in 1834.

Cyrus MCCorMiCk’s mechanism made cutting and gathering crops less strenuous.

Steam-powered plows

By the 1860s, the invention of the steam engine made animals the second choice for pulling plows. English engineer John Fowler devised the double-engine system, in which steam engines on both sides of a field pulled “anti-balance” plows on a steel rope. These tipped at each end so the land could be plowed back and forth, producing six Furrows at a time. Fowler’s plows were exported to Europe and Africa, but the expense meant that only large farms used them.

How it changed the world

The plow was a huge boost to farming communities, enabling agricultural production on a grand scale. Vast areas of land could be farmed by fewer people, resulting in much larger harvests.

Today, tractors pull large metal plows. Although this heavy-duty machinery does the hard work, the basic principle remains the same. Beam is attached to an animal or vehicle.

Turning the soil makes it more fertile, and buries weeds so they can break down.

The benefits of plowing

led to crop rotation, ensuring fertile soil and bountiful harvests. Rapid food production led to