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Post-Industrial Revolution
Steel ploughs were developed during the Industrial Revolution and were lighter and more durable than ploughs made of iron or wood. The cast-steel plough was developed by U.S. blacksmith John Deere in the 1830s. By this time the hitch, to the draught animals, was adjustable so that the wheel at the front was held onto the ground. The first steel ploughs were walking ploughs, having two handles held by the ploughman to provide a degree of control over the depth and location of the furrow behind the draughting force. The ploughman often was also controlling the draught animal(s). Riding ploughs with wheels and a seat for the operator came later, and often had more than one share.
A single draught horse can normally pull a single-furrow plough in clean light soil, but in heavier soils two horses are needed, one walking on the land and one in the furrow. For ploughs with two or more furrows, one or more horses have to walk on the loose ploughed sod -- and that makes hard going for them, and treads the newly ploughed land down. It is usual to rest such horses every half hour for about ten minutes.
Amish farmers tend to use a team of about seven horses or mules when spring ploughing and as Amish farmers often help each other plough, teams are sometimes changed at noon. Using this method about 10 acres can be ploughed per day in light soils and about 2 acres in heavy soils.
In the Appalachian region, plows are still used on some rural farms. It is not uncommon to see very steep land, not tillable by mechanical means due to the threat of causing the vehicle to roll, being ploughed with one horse or mule and a "hillside plough". The hillside plow has the advantage of being easily and quickly switched from turning the soil to the left, to turning the soil to the right, and back and forth. When the farmer gets to the end of the row and the draught animal has completed the turn back to plough the next row, the plough is lifted just enough to clear the soil, a manual lever is depressed, and the plough blade itself can be swung back under the plough where it clicks into place into the opposite configuration. This saves the animal's strength by allowing the plough to always turn the soil downhill, which makes for easier pulling. The hillside plough is only good for use on steep hillsides with easily tillable soil, due to its light weight, which allows the farmer to do the lift and switch procedure at the end of each row.
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A plough in action in South Africa. Notice the soil being turned over.
Yaks are used to plow fields in parts of Asia. |
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Steam ploughing
The advent of the mobile steam engine allowed steam power to be applied to ploughing from about 1850. In Europe, soil conditions were too soft to support the weight of the heavy traction engines. Instead, counterbalanced wheeled ploughs, known as "balance ploughs", were drawn by cables across the fields by pairs of ploughing engines.
In America the firm soil of the Plains allowed direct pulling with steam tractors, such as the big Case, Reeves or Sawyer Massey breaking engines. Gang plows of up to fourteen bottoms were used. Often these big ploughs were used in regiments of engines, so that in a single field there might be ten steam tractors each drawing a plough. In this way hundreds of acres could be turned over in a day. Only steam engines had the power to draw the big units. When gas engines appeared, they had neither the strength nor the ruggedness compared to the big steam tractors. Only by reducing the number of shares could the work be completed.
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