Plough

A plough is a farm-tool used in the initial cultivation of soil so as to prepare it for the sowing and planting of seeds. The plough is generally regarded as an off-shoot of the spade, or of the pick. Earlier ploughs were pulled by humans; a task for which animals were later employed (oxen, horse, etc.). After the Industrial Revolution, mechanically-driven ploughs came onto the scene. Initially, these mechanically-driven ploughs used steam-power (ploughing engines or steam tractors), which was later succeeded and replaced by tractors powered by internal-combustion engines.

Some of the various types of ploughs are scratch ploughs, mouldboard ploughs, reversible ploughs, chisel ploughs, etc. The first ploughs were simple scratch-ploughs constituting a vertical stick held on to a frame, which was dragged through the top-soil. A mouldboard plough may be animal or tractor driven, and consists of a plowshare (blade) and hitch. A reversible plough has 2 sets of mouldboards, placed inverted on top of each other, and allows level traversing of the field, with negligible ridging and furrowing. Chisel plough allows farmers to get deep tillage with minimal soil disruption. A chisel plough loosens and aerates the soil while at the same time ensuring that the crop residue is left in the topsoil.

Used and new ploughs and plough tractors can be found on sale on many online shopping portals.