The History of the Plow

The story of the plow is really the story of human agriculture—thousands of years of trial, error, and ingenuity. Its origins stretch so far back in time that pinpointing the very first plow is nearly impossible, but we know that by around 4500 BCE, farmers in ancient Egypt were already using early versions of this essential tool.

These first plows came in two basic styles: a light plow that skimmed the soil’s surface, and a heavier version, known as a “digging stick”, that could dig deeper into the ground. Most of these digging sticks were handmade by farmers and pulled by oxen, which laborers often rented from the government. This setup is one of the earliest recorded examples of using draft animals to power agriculture—a partnership that would shape farming for millennia.

Once the fields were opened, Egyptian farmers broke apart remaining soil clumps with small, club-like tools before sowing seeds by hand. Some even drove their oxen back across the planted rows to help work the seeds into the ground.

For centuries afterward, plow design remained mostly unchanged. Around the first century AD, the Romans introduced the ard, a more refined wooden plow inspired by earlier Egyptian models. Lightweight and surprisingly efficient, the ard cut through soil more cleanly and became the tool of choice across much of Europe.

The next big leap wouldn’t arrive until the age of Enlightenment thinkers. In 1784, Thomas Jefferson designed an improved moldboard plow that revolutionized the way soil was turned. By adding an iron coulter to slice the soil before flipping it over the curved moldboard, Jefferson’s design improved aeration, weed control, and overall crop potential.

But the plow that truly changed American farming was born in 1838. Blacksmith John Deere, who had spent years repairing farmers’ troublesome plows, understood that the sticky, heavy soils of the Midwest were a different beast entirely. Jefferson’s design simply couldn’t cope; farmers had to stop constantly to scrape the soil from the plow. Deere’s solution was brilliantly simple: he shaped a smooth, polished moldboard out of a discarded steel saw blade. The result was the first self-scouring steel plow, a tool that sliced through prairie soil without clogging.

This innovation didn’t just improve farming—it transformed the Midwest. With Deere’s plow, vast stretches of tough, untouched land suddenly became workable, fueling the rise of large-scale agriculture and marking a defining moment in farming technology.