Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A plough or plow (both pronounced / p l aʊ /) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. [1] Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or steel frame with a blade attached to cut and loosen the soil.
Jethro Wood (March 16, 1774 [1] – 1834) was the inventor of a cast-iron moldboard plow with replaceable parts, the first commercially successful iron moldboard plow. His invention accelerated the development of American agriculture in the antebellum period. [ 2 ]
In Europe, the earliest known wooden ard (at Lavagone in Italy) dates from around 2300–2000 BC, but the earliest scratch marks date from 3500–3000 BC. [8] All of these were bow ards, also depicted in the rock drawings of Bohuslän , Sweden, Copper Age stelae of Valcamonica (3000–2200 BC) and Fontanalba , France.
The Jethro Wood House is a historic house on Poplar Ridge Road, in a rural area west of the hamlet of Poplar Ridge in the town of Ledyard, New York.Built by 1800, it was the home of inventor Jethro Wood (1774–1834), whose 1819 invention of an iron moldboard plow revolutionized American agriculture.
The wooden plow was then invented. (It is difficult to pinpoint the exact date of its invention. However, the earliest evidence of plow usage dates back to around 4000 BCE in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) [timeframe?]. It could be pulled with human labor, or by mule, ox, elephant, water buffalo, or a similar sturdy animal.
Wooden plows were carefully constructed of individually fitted boards and painted frequently to maintain a smooth surface. Steel plows can be sprayed with water in sub-freezing temperatures to form a smooth layer of ice on the plow surface. [2] The plow has a horizontal wedge to lift snow above the level of snow accumulation beside the track.
In the early Middle Ages ploughing was done with large teams of small oxen (commonly eight oxen in four pairs), and the plough itself was a large, mainly wooden implement. The team and plough together were therefore many yards long, and this led to a particular effect in ridge and furrow fields.
It was made of a pole about 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) long with a pointed end of wood or bronze, a handle or curvature at the top, and a foot rest lashed near the bottom. [ 10 ] The Inca Emperor and accompanying provincial lords used foot ploughs in the "opening of the earth" ceremony at the beginning of the agricultural cycle. [ 11 ]