††A plough is a farming machine for turning over the soil.
Ploughs appeared as early as 3500 BC in parts of Egypt and India. These early versions were made of wood and stag antlers. Around the year 1600 BC, bronze ploughs were developed in Vietnam. These early ploughs were pulled along by men or oxen.
In about 500 BC the iron ploughshare came into use, and by about 1000 AD horses as well as oxen were being used to pull ploughs which were able to cut and turn a furrow.
Steam ploughs came into use in some areas in the 1860s, and 50 years later saw the introduction of tractor-driven ploughs.
