Editing Plough (section)

{{short description|Tool or farm implement}}
{{redirect-multi|3|Furrow|Plow|Plowman|the Canadian soldier|Edward Chester Plow|the surname|Plowman (surname)||Furrow (disambiguation)|and|Plough (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
[[File:Einscharpflug - Farmer plowing in Fahrenwalde, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.35|Traditional ploughing: a farmer works the land with horses and plough]]
[[File:Child and ox ploughing, Laos (1).jpg|thumb|[[Water buffalo]] used for ploughing in [[Laos]]]]
A '''plough''' or ([[Differences between American and British spellings|US]]) '''plow''' (both pronounced {{IPAc-en|p|l|aʊ}}) is a [[farm]] tool for loosening or turning the soil before [[sowing]] seed or planting.<ref name="Cambridge">{{Cite web |work=Cambridge English Dictionary |title=Plough |access-date=16 September 2018 |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/plough}}</ref> 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. It has been fundamental to farming for most of history.<ref>{{cite news| url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12997877| title = Anglo-Saxon 7th Century plough coulter found in Kent | work = BBC News| date = 7 April 2011}}</ref> The earliest ploughs had no wheels; such a plough was known to the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] as an ''aratrum''. [[Celts|Celtic peoples]] first came to use wheeled ploughs in the Roman era.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fMcbnMFn8lcC&pg=PA211 |page=211 |first1=R. G. |last1=Collingwood |first2=Robin George |last2=Collingwood |first3= John |last3=Nowell |first4=Linton |last4=Myres |title=Roman Britain and the English Settlements |year=1998 |orig-year=1936 |publisher=Biblo & Tannen Publishers|isbn=9780819611604 }}</ref>

The prime purpose of ploughing is to turn over the uppermost soil,<ref name="Britannica">{{Cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/plow |title=Plow |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia Britannica]] |access-date=16 September 2018}}</ref> bringing fresh [[Plant nutrients in soil|nutrients]] to the surface<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F7aA8fzQtNMC&pg=PA7 |page=7 |title=Living Sci. 8 Silver Jubilee |publisher=Ratna Sagar |first1=A C |last1=Sahgal |first2=Mukul |last2=Sahgal |location=India |isbn=9788183325035}}</ref> while burying [[weed]]s and crop remains to [[Decomposition|decay]]. Trenches cut by the plough are called furrows. In modern use, a ploughed field is normally left to dry and then [[Harrow (tool)|harrow]]ed before planting. Ploughing and [[Tillage|cultivating]] soil evens the content of the upper {{convert|12|to|25|cm|in|sigfig=1}} layer of soil, where most plant feeder [[root]]s grow.

Ploughs were initially powered by humans, but the use of farm animals is considerably more efficient. The earliest animals worked were oxen. Later, horses and [[mule]]s were used in many areas. With the [[Industrial Revolution]] came the possibility of [[steam engine]]s to pull ploughs. These in turn were superseded by [[internal combustion engine|internal-combustion]]-powered [[tractor]]s in the early 20th century.  The [[Petty Plough]] was a notable invention for ploughing out orchard strips in Australia in 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 [[tillage#Conservation tillage|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 (tool)|hoe]], over which is better: a [[Sumerian disputations|Sumerian disputation poem]] known as the [[Debate between the hoe and the plough]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jiménez |first=Enrique |title=The Babylonian disputation poems: with editions of the series of the Poplar, Palm and vine, the Series of the spider, and the Story of the poor, forlorn wren |date=2017 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-33625-4 |series=Culture and history of the ancient Near East |location=Leiden ; Boston |pages=13–18}}</ref>