AEN 513 Soil Dynamics in Tillage and Traction

PRECURSORS TO MODERN TILLAGE TOOLS
• Moldboard plows were
introduced in Europe to
invert soil and make true
furrows around 1500 A.D.
• The Rotherham plow
developed in northern Europe
in the 1700’s.
• Jethro Tull developed the
concept of row crop
cultivation in the 1700’s.
• Robert Ransome patented the
first cast iron plow share and
replacable parts for tillage
implements by the early
1800’s
TILLAGE IN EXPANDING AMERICA
• Thomas Jefferson wrote a mathematical description of
the moldboard plow surface in the early 1800’s
• Illinois blacksmith John Deere developed and sold the
first steel plow with one piece share and moldboard in
the 1830’s
• The productive soils of the Midwest and Great Plains
were brought under cultivation during the 1800’s
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