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81-524: Oxen are used for plowing , for transport (pulling carts , hauling wagons and even riding), for threshing grain by trampling, and for powering machines that grind grain or supply irrigation among other purposes. Oxen may be also used to skid logs in forests, particularly in low-impact, select-cut logging . Oxen are usually yoked in pairs. Light work such as carting household items on good roads might require just one pair, while for heavier work, further pairs would be added as necessary. A team used for

162-461: A PIE stem * blōkó- , which supposedly gave Old Armenian peɫem "to dig" and Welsh bwlch "crack", though the word may not be of Indo-European origin. The basic parts of the modern plough are: Other parts include the frog (or frame), runner, landside, shin, trashboard, and stilts (handles). On modern ploughs and some older ploughs, the mould board is separate from the share and runner, so these parts can be replaced without replacing

243-554: A farrier shoes the fourth. In England, shoeing was accomplished by throwing the ox to the ground and lashing all four feet to a heavy wooden tripod until the shoeing was complete. A similar technique was used in Serbia and, in a simpler form, in India, where it is still practiced. In Italy, where oxen may be very large, shoeing is accomplished using a massive framework of beams in which the animal can be partly or completely lifted from

324-573: A broken piece to be replaced. In 1833 John Lane invented a steel plough. Then in 1837 John Deere introduced a steel plough; it was so much stronger than iron designs that it could work soil in US areas previously thought unsuitable for farming. Improvements on this followed developments in metallurgy: steel coulters and shares with softer iron mould boards to prevent breakage, the chilled plough (an early example of surface-hardened steel), and eventually mould boards with faces strong enough to dispense with

405-491: A clumsy construction necessitated large plough-teams, and this meant that large areas of land had to be reserved as pasture. In China, where much less animal power was required, it was not necessary to maintain the mixed arable-pasture economy typical of Europe: fallows could be reduced and the arable area expanded, and a considerably larger population could be supported than on the same amount of land in Europe. The upper parts of

486-443: A field leaves a row of sods partly in the furrows and partly on the ground lifted earlier. Visually, across the rows, there is the land on the left, a furrow (half the width of the removed strip of soil) and the removed strip almost upside-down lying on about half of the previous strip of inverted soil, and so on across the field. Each layer of soil and the gutter it came from forms a classic furrow. The mould-board plough greatly reduced

567-563: A heavy load over difficult ground might exceed nine or ten pairs. Oxen are thought to have first been harnessed and put to work around 4000 BC. Working oxen are taught to respond to the signals of the teamster , bullocky or ox-driver . These signals are given by oral command and body language, reinforced by a goad , whip or a long pole (which also serves as a measure of length: see rod ). In pre-industrial times, most teamsters were known for their loud voices and forthright language. Verbal commands for draft animals vary widely throughout

648-431: A hydraulic cylinder on each bottom. When an obstruction is encountered, the plough bottom hinges back and up in such a way as to pass over the obstruction, without stopping the tractor and plough. The bottom automatically returns to normal ploughing position as soon as the obstruction is passed, without any interruption of forward motion. The automatic reset design permits higher field efficiencies since stopping for stones

729-450: A load, horses could not pull with their full strength because the yoke was incompatible with their anatomy (yokes press on their chest, inhibiting their breathing). Plough A plough or ( US ) plow (both pronounced / p l aʊ / ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have

810-461: A longer period of time than horses depending on weather conditions. On the other hand, they are also slower than horses, which has both advantages and disadvantages; their pulling style is steadier, but they cannot cover as much ground in a given period of time. For agricultural purposes, oxen are more suitable for heavy tasks such as breaking sod or plowing in wet, heavy, or clay-filled soil. When hauling freight, oxen can move very heavy loads in

891-539: A marked population increase, beginning around AD 1000. Before the Han dynasty (202 BC – AD 220), Chinese ploughs were made almost wholly of wood except for the iron blade of the ploughshare. These were V-shaped iron pieces mounted on wooden blades and handles. By the Han period the entire ploughshare was made of cast iron . These are the earliest known heavy, mould-board iron ploughs. Several advancements such as

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972-692: A millennium. Major changes in design spread widely in the Age of Enlightenment , when there was rapid progress in design. Joseph Foljambe in Rotherham , England, in 1730, used new shapes based on the Rotherham plough, which covered the mould board with iron. Unlike the heavy plough, the Rotherham, or Rotherham swing plough consisted entirely of the coulter, mould board and handles. It was much lighter than earlier designs and became common in England. It may have been

1053-404: A mouldboard plough: The share , landside and mould board are bolted to the frog, which is an irregular piece of cast iron at the base of the plough body, to which the soil-wearing parts are bolted. The share is the edge that makes the horizontal cut to separate the furrow slice from the soil below. Conventional shares are shaped to penetrate soil efficiently: the tip is pointed downward to pull

1134-408: A mounted point is somewhere between the last two types. Makers have designed shares of various shapes (trapesium, diamond, etc.) with bolted point and wings, often separately renewable. Sometimes the share-cutting edge is placed well in advance of the mould board to reduce the pulverizing action of the soil. The mould board is the part of the plough that receives the furrow slice from the share. It

1215-416: A plough body hits an obstruction are a cheaper overload protection device. Trip-beam ploughs are constructed with a hinge point in the beam. This is usually located some distance above the top of the plough bottom. The bottom is held in normal ploughing position by a spring-operated latch. When an obstruction is encountered, the entire bottom is released and hinges back and up to pass over the obstruction. It

1296-438: A ploughman could easily lift. This limited the construction to a small amount of wood (although metal edges were possible). These ploughs were fairly fragile and unsuitable for the heavier soils of northern Europe. The introduction of wheels to replace the runner allowed the weight of the plough to increase, and in turn the use of a larger mould-board faced in metal. These heavy ploughs led to greater food production and eventually

1377-474: A route through the downs which locally reach 200 to 300 metres. The Kennet and Avon Canal and the main line railway from London to the south-west make use of this route, the canal using the Bruce Tunnel . Formerly another rail route between Andover and Marlborough also followed this gap. Another line formerly branched off towards Bath via Devizes at the western end of the vale. The vale lies along

1458-436: A slow and steady fashion. They are at a disadvantage compared to horses when it is necessary to pull a plow or load of freight relatively quickly. For millennia, oxen also could pull heavier loads because of the use of the yoke , which was designed to work best with the neck and shoulder anatomy of cattle. Until the invention of the horse collar , which allowed the horse to engage the pushing power of its hindquarters in moving

1539-503: A wooden, iron or steel frame with a blade attached to cut and loosen the soil. It has been fundamental to farming for most of history. The earliest ploughs had no wheels; such a plough was known to the Romans as an aratrum . Celtic peoples first came to use wheeled ploughs in the Roman era. The prime purpose of ploughing is to turn over the uppermost soil, bringing fresh nutrients to

1620-408: Is necessary to back up the tractor and plough to reset the bottom. This construction is used to protect the individual bottoms. The automatic reset design has only recently been introduced on US ploughs, but has been used extensively on European and Australian ploughs. Here the beam is hinged at a point almost above the point of the share. The bottom is held in the normal position by a set of springs or

1701-577: Is not practical on larger ploughs. When an obstruction is encountered, the spring release mechanism in the hitch permits the plough to uncouple from the tractor. When a hydraulic lift is used on the plough, the hydraulic hoses will also usually uncouple automatically when the plough uncouples. Most plough makers offer an automatic reset system for tough conditions or rocky soils. The re-set mechanism allows each body to move rearward and upward to pass without damage over obstacles such as rocks hidden below soil surface. A heavy leaf or coil-spring mechanism that holds

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1782-457: Is practically eliminated. It also reduces costs for broken shares, beams and other parts. The fast resetting action helps produce a better job of ploughing, as large areas of unploughed land are not left, as they are when lifting a plough over a stone. Manual loy ploughing was a form used on small farms in Ireland where farmers could not afford more, or on hilly ground that precluded horses. It

1863-523: Is presumably why the standard Han plough team consisted of two animals only, and later teams usually of a single animal, rather than the four, six or eight draught animals common in Europe before the introduction of the curved mould-board and other new principles of design in the 18th century. Though the mould-board plough first appeared in Europe in early medieval, if not in late Roman, times, pre-eighteenth century mould-boards were usually wooden and straight (Fig. 59). The enormous labour involved in pulling such

1944-427: Is responsible for lifting and turning the furrow slice and sometimes for shattering it, depending on the type of mould board, ploughing depth and soil conditions. The intensity of this depends on the type of mould board. To suit different soil conditions and crop requirements, mould boards have been designed in different shapes, each producing its own furrow profile and surface finish, but essentially they still conform to

2025-430: Is the origin of the acre . The one-sided action gradually moved soil from the sides to the centre line of the strip. If the strip was in the same place each year, the soil built up into a ridge, creating the ridge and furrow topography still seen in some ancient fields. The turn-wrest plough allows ploughing to be done to either side. The mould board is removable, turning to the right for one furrow, then being moved to

2106-402: Is very short, except at the rear bottom of the plough. The heel or rear end of the rear land side may be subject to excessive wear if the rear wheel is out of adjustment, and so a chilled iron heel piece is frequently used. This is inexpensive and can be easily replaced. The land side is fastened to the frog by plough bolts. The frog (standard) is the central part of the plough bottom to which

2187-637: Is why they are called hand-ards . However, domestication of oxen in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley Civilisation , perhaps as early as the 6th millennium BC, provided mankind with the draft power needed to develop the larger, animal-drawn true ard (or scratch plough). The earliest surviving evidence of ploughing has been dated to 3500–3800 BCE, on a site in Bubeneč , Czech Republic. A ploughed field, from c.  2800 BCE,

2268-478: The Debate between the hoe and the plough . In older English, as in other Germanic languages , the plough was traditionally known by other names, e.g. Old English sulh (modern dialectal sullow ), Old High German medela , geiza , huohilī(n) , Old Norse arðr ( Swedish årder ), and Gothic hōha , all presumably referring to the ard (scratch plough). The modern word comes from

2349-1000: The Old Norse plógr , and is therefore Germanic, but it appears relatively late (it is not attested in Gothic ) and is thought to be a loan from one of the north Italic languages . The German cognate is "pflug", the Dutch "ploeg" and the Swedish "plog". In many Slavic languages and in Romanian the word is "plug". Words with the same root appeared with related meanings: in Raetic plaumorati "wheeled heavy plough" ( Pliny , Nat. Hist. 18, 172), and in Latin plaustrum "farm cart", plōstrum, plōstellum "cart", and plōxenum, plōximum "cart box". The word must have originally referred to

2430-727: The Stanchester Hoard . The find is now at the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes . Since that time there have been several other Roman hoards discovered in the area. In 2005, significant Neolithic finds and two henge sites – the Marden and Wilsford Henges – were discovered in the vale. According to the Pewsey Vale Local Plan prepared by Kennet District Council in 1992, the vale includes land in

2511-409: The carruca heavy plough in Europe seems to have accompanied adoption of the three-field system in the later 8th and early 9th centuries, leading to improved agricultural productivity per unit of land in northern Europe. This was accompanied by larger fields, known variously as carucates , ploughlands, and plough gates. The basic plough with coulter, ploughshare and mould board remained in use for

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2592-614: The downs , the vale is included as part of the North Wessex Downs AONB ( Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty ). The vale is a major east–west feature opening to the west towards the Bristol Channel , but is drained by the headwaters of the Salisbury Avon , rather than the westward-flowing Bristol Avon . The river cuts through the chalk scarp to the south at Upavon and crosses Salisbury Plain towards

2673-432: The 1930s. Use of the traditional plough has decreased in some areas threatened by soil damage and erosion . Used instead is shallower ploughing or other less-invasive conservation tillage . The plough appears in one of the oldest surviving pieces of written literature, from the 3rd millennium BC, where it is personified and debating with another tool, the hoe , over which is better: a Sumerian disputation poem known as

2754-709: The adjacent Tan Hill summiting at 294 m / 965 ft. The vale is not used by any major roads, but is followed by a railway and canal as a route between the London Basin and the west. To the north of Burbage the head of the Avon valley, draining west into the vale, meets the head of the River Dun , draining east to the Kennet and the Thames . The valley floor at around 150 metres (490 ft) above sea level provides

2835-452: The body in its working position under normal conditions resets the plough after the obstruction is passed. Another type of auto-reset mechanism uses an oil (hydraulic) and gas accumulator. Shock loads cause the oil to compress the gas. When the gas expands again, the leg returns to its working ploughing position after passing over the obstacle. The simplest mechanism is a breaking (shear) bolt that needs replacement. Shear bolts that break when

2916-517: The bottom of the shaft with bits of rope, which made them more fragile than the Chinese ones, and iron mould-boards did not appear in Europe until the 10th century. The first indisputable appearance after the Roman period is in a northern Italian document of 643. Old words connected with the heavy plough and its use appear in Slavic , suggesting possible early use in that region. General adoption of

2997-864: The cost of buying that year's new pair. Use of oxen for plowing survived in some areas of England (such as the South Downs ) until the early twentieth century. Pairs of oxen were always hitched the same way round, and they were often given paired names. In southern England it was traditional to call the near-side (left) ox of a pair by a single-syllable name and the off-side (right) one by a longer one (for example: Lark and Linnet, Turk and Tiger). Ox trainers favor larger animals for their ability to do more work. Oxen are therefore usually of larger breeds, and are usually males because they are generally larger. Females can also be trained as oxen, but as well as being smaller are often more valued for producing calves and milk . Bulls (intact males) are also used in many parts of

3078-446: The coulter. By the time of the early 1900s, the steel plough had many uses, shapes and names. The "two horse breaking plough" had a point and wing used to break the soil's surface and turn the dirt out and over. The "shovel plough" was used to lay off the rows. The "harrow plough" was used to cover the planted seed. The "scratcher" or "geewhiz" was used to deweed or cultivate the crop. The "bulltongue" and "sweeps" were used to plough

3159-470: The cut formed by the coulter, turning over the soil to the side. The ploughshare spread the cut horizontally below the surface, so that when the mould board lifted it, a wider area of soil was turned over. Mould boards are known in Britain from the late 6th century onwards. There are multiple types of ploughs available. When a plough hits a rock or other solid obstruction, serious damage may result unless

3240-528: The design. Using mathematical methods, he eventually arrived at a shape cast from a single piece of iron, an improvement on the Scots plough of James Anderson of Hermiston . A single-piece cast-iron plough was also developed and patented by Charles Newbold in the United States. This was again improved on by Jethro Wood , a blacksmith of Scipio, New York , who made a three-part Scots plough that allowed

3321-503: The device was called a crush or trevis; one example is recorded in the Vale of Pewsey . The shoeing of an ox partly lifted in a sling is the subject of John Singer Sargent 's painting Shoeing the Ox , while A Smith Shoeing an Ox by Karel Dujardin shows an ox being shod standing, tied to a post by the horns and balanced by supporting the raised hoof. Oxen can pull heavier loads, and pull for

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3402-466: The east near Burbage. There is also a small inlier of Greensand to the east at Shalbourne ; this area drains northwards to the Kennet. Neolithic sites in the vale include Knap Hill , a causewayed enclosure near Alton Priors , first investigated by Benjamin and Maud Cunnington in 1908–9. In 2000, near the village of Wilcot , a schoolboy found a hoard of Roman coins which became known as

3483-535: The eroded core of an anticline , a westward extension of the Mendip Axis, with a relatively thin covering of Mesozoic sediments folded upwards over an up-faulted horst of Palaeozoic rocks. The floor of the vale is composed of Albian (Lower Cretaceous) beds of the Upper Greensand , exposed by removal of the overlying chalk. It is surrounded to the north and south by chalk scarps which close to

3564-475: The fields were often cross-ploughed lengthwise and breadth-wise, which tended to form squarish Celtic fields . The ard is best suited to loamy or sandy soils that are naturally fertilised by annual flooding, as in the Nile Delta and Fertile Crescent , and to a lesser extent any other cereal -growing region with light or thin soil. To grow crops regularly in less-fertile areas, it was once believed that

3645-567: The first plough widely built in factories and commercially successful there. In 1789 Robert Ransome , an iron founder in Ipswich , started casting ploughshares in a disused malting at St Margaret's Ditches. A broken mould in his foundry caused molten metal to come into contact with cold metal, making the metal surface extremely hard. This process, chilled casting, resulted in what Ransome advertised as "self-sharpening" ploughs. He received patents for his discovery. James Small further advanced

3726-467: The following parishes: Alton , Buttermere , Burbage , Charlton , Chute , Chute Forest , Collingbourne Ducis , Collingbourne Kingston , Easton , Enford , Everleigh , Fittleton , Froxfield , Grafton , Great Bedwyn , Ham , Huish , Little Bedwyn , Manningford , Milton Lilbourne , Netheravon , North Newnton , Pewsey , Rushall , Shalbourne , Tidcombe and Fosbury , Upavon , Wilcot , Wilsford , Woodborough , and Wootton Rivers . Pewsey

3807-412: The frame carry (from the front) the coupling for the motive power (horses), the coulter, and the landside frame. Depending on the size of the implement, and the number of furrows it is designed to plough at one time, a fore-carriage with a wheel or wheels (known as a furrow wheel and support wheel) may be added to support the frame (wheeled plough). In the case of a single-furrow plough there is one wheel at

3888-617: The frame supporting the under-share (below-ground component). The heavy iron moldboard plow was invented in China 's Han Empire in the 1st and 2nd century, and from there it spread to the Netherlands , which led the Agricultural Revolution. The mould-board plough introduced in the 18th century was a major advance in technology. Chinese ploughs from Han times on fulfill all these conditions of efficiency nicely, which

3969-419: The front and handles at the rear for the ploughman to maneuver it. When dragged through a field, the coulter cuts down into the soil and the share cuts horizontally from the previous furrow to the vertical cut. This releases a rectangular strip of sod to be lifted by the share and carried by the mould board up and over, so that the strip of sod (slice of the topsoil ) that is being cut lifts and rolls over as

4050-407: The great advantage of leaving a level surface that facilitates seedbed preparation and harvesting. Very little marking out is necessary before ploughing can start; idle running on the headland is minimal compared with conventional ploughs. Vale of Pewsey The Vale of Pewsey or Pewsey Vale is an area of Wiltshire , England to the east of Devizes and south of Marlborough , centred on

4131-476: The ground by slings passed under the body; the feet are then lashed to lateral beams or held with a rope while the shoes are fitted. Such devices were made of wood in the past, but may today be of metal. Similar devices are found in France, Austria, Germany, Spain, Canada and the United States, where they may be called ox slings, ox presses or shoeing stalls. The system was sometimes adopted in England also, where

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4212-470: The long sides and being dragged across the short sides without ploughing. The length of the strip was limited by the distance oxen (later horses) could comfortably work without rest, and their width by the distance the plough could conveniently be dragged. These distances determined the traditional size of the strips: a furlong , (or "furrow's length", 220 yards (200 m)) by a chain (22 yards (20 m)) – an area of one acre (about 0.4 hectares); this

4293-440: The middle of the rows. All these metal plough points required being re-sharpened about every ten days, due to their use on rough and rocky ground. The first mould-board ploughs could only turn the soil over in one direction ( conventionally to the right), as dictated by the shape of the mould board; therefore, a field had to be ploughed in long strips, or lands . The plough was usually worked clockwise around each land, ploughing

4374-575: The mould board. Abrasion eventually wears out all parts of a plough that come into contact with the soil. When agriculture was first developed , soil was turned using simple hand-held digging sticks and hoes . These were used in highly fertile areas, such as the banks of the Nile , where the annual flood rejuvenates the soil, to create drills (furrows) in which to plant seeds. Digging sticks, hoes and mattocks were not invented in any one place, and hoe cultivation must have been common everywhere agriculture

4455-403: The original plough body classification. The various types have been traditionally classified as general purpose, digger, and semi-digger, as described below. The land side is the flat plate which presses against and transmits the lateral thrust of the plough bottom to the furrow wall. It helps to resist the side pressure exerted by the furrow slice on the mould board. It also helps to stabilise

4536-410: The other components of the bottom are attached. It is an irregular piece of metal, which may be made of cast iron for cast iron ploughs or welded steel for steel ploughs. The frog is the foundation of the plough bottom. It takes the shock resulting from hitting rocks, and therefore should be tough and strong. The frog is in turn fastened to the plough frame. A runner extending from behind the share to

4617-536: The other is borne upside-down in the air. At the end of each row the paired ploughs are turned over so that the other can be used along the next furrow, again working the field in a consistent direction. These ploughs date back to the days of the steam engine and the horse. In almost universal use on farms, they have right and left-handed mould boards, enabling them to work up and down the same furrow. Reversible ploughs may either be mounted or semi-mounted and are heavier and more expensive than right-handed models, but have

4698-404: The other side of the plough to turn to the left. (The coulter and ploughshare are fixed.) Thus adjacent furrows can be ploughed in opposite directions, allowing ploughing to proceed continuously along the field and so avoid the ridge–furrow topography. The reversible (or roll-over) plough has two mould-board ploughs mounted back to back, one turning right, the other left. While one works the land,

4779-455: The plough is equipped with some safety device. The damage may be bent or broken shares, bent standards, beams or braces. The three basic types of safety devices used on mould-board ploughs are a spring release device in the plough drawbar, a trip beam construction on each bottom, and an automatic reset design on each bottom. The spring release was used in the past almost universally on trailing-type ploughs with one to three or four bottoms. It

4860-410: The plough moves forward, dropping back upside down into the furrow and onto the turned soil from the previous run down the field. Each gap in the ground where the soil has been lifted and moved across (usually to the right) is called a furrow. The sod lifted from it rests at an angle of about 45 degrees in the adjacent furrow, up the back of the sod from the previous run. A series of ploughings run down

4941-487: The plough to create the desired width of furrow. The share is a plane part with a trapezoidal shape. It cuts the soil horizontally and lifts it. Common types are regular, winged-plane, bar-point, and share with mounted or welded point. The regular share conserves a good cut but is recommended on stone-free soils. The winged-plane share is used on heavy soil with a moderate amount of stones. The bar-point share can be used in extreme conditions (hard and stony soils). The share with

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5022-427: The plough while in operation. The rear bottom end of the landslide, which rubs against the furrow sole, is known as the heel. A heel iron is bolted to the end of the rear of the land side and helps to support the back of the plough. The land side and share are arranged to give a "lead" towards the unploughed land, so helping to sustain the correct furrow width. The land side is usually made of solid medium-carbon steel and

5103-406: The rear of the plough controls the direction of the plough, because it is held against the bottom land-side corner of the new furrow being formed. The holding force is the weight of the sod, as it is raised and rotated, on the curved surface of the mould board. Because of this runner, the mould board plough is harder to turn around than the scratch plough, and its introduction brought about a change in

5184-617: The shape of fields – from mostly square fields into longer rectangular "strips" (hence the introduction of the furlong ). An advance on the basic design was the iron ploughshare, a replaceable horizontal cutting surface mounted on the tip of the share. The earliest ploughs with a detachable and replaceable share date from around 1000 BC in the Ancient Near East , and the earliest iron ploughshares from about 500 BC in China. Early mould boards were wedges that sat inside

5265-442: The share into the ground to a regular depth. The clearance, usually referred to as suction or down suction, varies with different makes and types of plough. Share configuration is related to soil type, particularly in the down suction or concavity of its lower surface. Generally three degrees of clearance or down suction are recognised: regular for light soil, deep for ordinary dry soil, and double-deep for clay and gravelly soils. As

5346-457: The share wears away, it becomes blunt and the plough will require more power to pull it through the soil. A plough body with a worn share will not have enough "suck" to ensure it delves the ground to its full working depth. In addition, the share has horizontal suction related to the amount its point is bent out of line with the land side. Down suction causes the plough to penetrate to proper depth when pulled forward, while horizontal suction causes

5427-411: The soil must be turned to bring nutrients to the surface. A major advance for this type of farming was the turn plough, also known as the mould-board plough (UK), moldboard plow (U.S.), or frame-plough. A coulter (or skeith) could be added to cut vertically into the ground just ahead of the share (in front of the frog), a wedge-shaped cutting edge at the bottom front of the mould board with the landside of

5508-495: The south coast. The higher part of the eastern vale south of Burbage is drained by the River Bourne , which cuts the scarp at Collingbourne Kingston , joining the Avon at Salisbury . Since the area is not believed to have been glaciated, this probably indicates that the course of the rivers pre-dates the modern topography. The highest point is Milk Hill (near Alton Barnes ) at 295 m / 968 ft above sea level, with

5589-409: The stilt (handle) and the other a share (cutting blade) dragged through the topsoil to cut a shallow furrow suitable for most cereal crops. The ard does not clear new land well, so hoes or mattocks had to be used to pull up grass and undergrowth, and a hand-held, coulter -like ristle could be made to cut deeper furrows ahead of the share. Because the ard left a strip of undisturbed earth between furrows,

5670-407: The surface while burying weeds and crop remains to decay . Trenches cut by the plough are called furrows. In modern use, a ploughed field is normally left to dry and then harrowed before planting. Ploughing and cultivating soil evens the content of the upper 12 to 25 centimetres (5 to 10 in) layer of soil, where most plant feeder roots grow. Ploughs were initially powered by humans, but

5751-640: The three-shared plow, the plow-and-sow implement, and the harrow were developed subsequently. By the end of the Song dynasty in 1279, Chinese ploughs had reached a state of development that would not be seen in Holland until the 17th century. The Romans achieved a heavy-wheeled mould-board plough in the late 3rd and 4th century AD, for which archaeological evidence appears, for instance, in Roman Britain . The Greek and Roman mould-boards were usually tied to

5832-423: The time needed to prepare a field and so allowed a farmer to work a larger area of land. In addition, the resulting pattern of low (under the mould board) and high (beside it) ridges in the soil forms water channels, allowing the soil to drain. In areas where snow build-up causes difficulties, this lets farmers plant the soil earlier, as the meltwater run-off drains away more quickly. There are five major parts of

5913-558: The use of farm animals is considerably more efficient. The earliest animals worked were oxen. Later, horses and mules were used in many areas. With the Industrial Revolution came the possibility of steam engines to pull ploughs. These in turn were superseded by internal-combustion -powered tractors in the early 20th century. The Petty Plough was a notable invention for ploughing out orchard strips in Australia in

5994-667: The village of Pewsey . The vale is an extent of lower lying ground separating the chalk downs of Salisbury Plain to the south from the Marlborough Downs to the north. It is around 30 kilometres (19 mi) long and around 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) wide. At the western end is the town of Devizes. Larger settlements in the vale include Pewsey and Burbage with many smaller villages, the larger ones including Bishops Cannings , Etchilhampton , Urchfont , Chirton , Alton Priors , Woodborough , Milton Lilbourne , Easton Royal and Wootton Rivers . Although not itself part of

6075-591: The wheeled heavy plough, common in Roman north-western Europe by the 5th century AD. Many view plough as a derivative of the verb * plehan ~ * plegan 'to take responsibility' (cf. German pflegen 'to look after, nurse'), which would explain, for example, Old High German pfluog with its double meaning of 'plough' and 'livelihood'. Guus Kroonen (2013) proposes a vṛddhi -derivative of * plag/kkōn 'sod' (cf. Dutch plag 'sod', Old Norse plagg 'cloth', Middle High German pflacke 'rag, patch, stain'). Finally, Vladimir Orel (2003) tentatively attaches plough to

6156-461: The world, especially Asia and Africa . Working oxen usually require shoes, although in England not all working oxen were shod. Since their hooves are cloven, two shoes are required for each hoof, as opposed to a single horseshoe . Ox shoes are usually of approximately half-moon or banana shape, either with or without caulkins , and are fitted in symmetrical pairs to the hooves. Unlike horses, oxen are not easily able to balance on three legs while

6237-518: The world. In North America, the most common commands are: In the New England tradition, young castrated cattle selected for draft are known as working steers and are painstakingly trained from a young age. Their teamster makes or buys as many as a dozen yokes of different sizes for each animal as it grows. The steers are normally considered fully trained at the age of four and only then become known as oxen. A tradition in southeastern England

6318-402: Was also discovered at Kalibangan , India. A terracotta model of the early ards was found at Banawali , India, giving insight into the form of the tool used. The ard remained easy to replace if it became damaged and easy to replicate. The earliest was the bow ard, which consists of a draft-pole (or beam) pierced by a thinner vertical pointed stick called the head (or body), with one end being

6399-496: Was practised. Hoe-farming is the traditional tillage method in tropical or sub-tropical regions, which are marked by stony soils, steep slope gradients, predominant root crops, and coarse grains grown at wide intervals. While hoe-agriculture is best suited to these regions, it is used in some fashion everywhere. Some ancient hoes, like the Egyptian mr , were pointed and strong enough to clear rocky soil and make seed drills , which

6480-419: Was to use oxen (often Sussex cattle ) as dual-purpose animals: for draft and beef. A plowing team of eight oxen normally consisted of four pairs aged a year apart. Each year, a pair of steers of about three years of age would be bought for the team and trained with the older animals. The pair would be kept for about four years, then sold at about seven years old to be fattened for beef – thus covering much of

6561-399: Was used up until the 1960s in poorer land. It suited the moist Irish climate, as the trenches formed by turning in the sods provided drainage. It allowed potatoes to be grown in bogs (peat swamps) and on otherwise unfarmed mountain slopes. In the basic mould-board plough, the depth of cut is adjusted by lifting against the runner in the furrow, which limited the weight of the plough to what

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