Plough facts for kids
A plow (sometimes spelled plough) is a simple but very important machine used in farming. Farmers use plows to prepare the ground for planting. A plow is pulled across the field by a human or an animal, like a yak or a horse. When it moves, the plow lifts up the dirt, making it looser. This loose dirt is much better for seeds to grow in.
Parts of a Plow
Modern plows have several key parts that work together. Look at the diagram to see them:
- Beam: This is the main frame of the plow.
- Hitch: This part connects the plow to whatever is pulling it, like a tractor or an animal.
- Vertical regulator: This helps adjust how deep the plow goes into the soil.
- Coulter: This is a sharp blade that cuts the soil vertically. It can be a knife or a disk.
- Chisel: This is a small, sharp point that helps break into the soil first.
- Share: This is the main cutting part that slices through the soil horizontally.
- Mouldboard: This curved part lifts and turns over the soil after it's been cut.
Some parts of a plow, like the share and mouldboard, can wear out over time because they rub against the soil. Farmers can replace these parts without needing a whole new plow.
History of Plowing
Long ago, when farming first started, people used simple digging sticks or hoes to prepare the soil. This was especially true in places with naturally rich soil, like near the Nile River in Africa. The Nile River would flood every year, which made the soil fresh and ready for planting.
But in other areas where floods were rare, farmers needed a different way to make the soil good for crops. This is when plowing began. The first plows were probably just improved hoes. Over thousands of years, plows became more advanced. They changed from simple hand tools to tools pulled by animals, and much later, by powerful machines like tractors. Plowing helped people grow more food and was a big step forward in the history of farming.
Images for kids
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Traditional ploughing: a farmer works the land with horses and plough
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13th century depiction of a ploughing peasant, Royal Library of Spain
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Ancient Egyptian ard, c. 1200 BC. (Burial chamber of Sennedjem)
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Farmers using a plough. Akkadian Empire seal, circa 2200 BC. Louvre Museum
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Ploughing in Mysore, India
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A reconstruction of a mouldboard plough
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The mouldboard plow leaves distinct furrows (trenches) across the field.
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A steel plough
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19th century ploughs
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Chinese iron plough with curved mouldboard, 1637
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Modern tractor ploughing in South Africa. This plough has five non-reversible mouldboards. The fifth, empty furrow on the left may be filled by the first furrow of the next pass.
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'A Champion ploughman', from Australia, c. 1900
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Single-sided ploughing in a ploughing match
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A four-furrow reversible Kverneland plough.
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Early tractor-drawn two-furrow plough.
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A German Kemna balance plough. The left-turning set of shares have just completed a pass, and the right-turning shares are about to enter the ground to return across the field.
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Disc ploughs in Australia, c. 1900
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A British woman ploughing on a World War I recruitment poster for the Women's Land Army.
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A modern John Deere 8110 Farm Tractor using a chisel plough. The ploughing tines are at the rear, the refuse-cutting coulters at the front.
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Bigham Brother Tomato Tiller
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Back side of a 100 mark banknote issued 1908
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1975 Italian lira coin
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Robert Burns statue, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh
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The Gefion Fountain in Copenhagen
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Henry Herbert La Thangue, The Last Furrow, 1895
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Ploughing in the Nivernais by Rosa Bonheur (1849)
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Plough-usage was revolutionized with the advent of steam-locomotives (as seen in this German 1890s watercolor)
See also
In Spanish: Arado para niños
