This is a traditional horse-drawn steel plow that would have been familiar on most nineteenth- and early twentieth-century farms. One of the most ancient and important agricultural implements, the plow is used to cultivate soil in preparation for sowing seed.
Prior to the domestication of draft-animals that could pull plows, agriculture was limited to areas like the Nile Valley and modern-day Iraq with light, nutrient-rich soil that could easily be turned by hand-held hoes. The plow was critical to the development of agriculture and civilization in northern Europe, where heavy soil required frequent turnover.
The eighteenth-century witnessed the invention of the mouldboard which allowed for deeper and wider furrows. The last great improvement to the plow design prior to the advent of mechanized agriculture was developed in the United States. In 1837, an Illinois blacksmith named John Deere produced the very first steel plow, which provided a means to break through the tough, black prairie soil. Deere’s invention paved the way for western settlement and laid the foundation for one of the most successful equipment manufacturers of all time.