CULTIVATION OF WHEAT 61 



less developed agriculturally and horses in the more developed 

 ones. For example, oxen were preferred to horses in England 

 from 1250 to 1650. 



Steam. After nearly two centuries of projection and in- 

 vention, steam was successfully used for agricultural oper- 

 ations in England in 1832. The system adopted was that of 

 dragging the implements by the aid of pulleys and a cable re- 

 volyed by a stationary steam engine. This method in improved 

 form is still found in Europe. The movable engine appeared 

 before 1850. In the United States, activity in the invention 

 of steam plows began in 1.861, and it was perhaps entirely con- 

 fined to the use of the traction engine. On the Pacific coast, 

 steam is used quite extensively in the cultivation of wheat, es- 

 pecially on the larger farms. In Germany and Hungary there 

 was about one steam plow to every 10 small plows in 1900. 

 There have also been experiments with electricity as a motor 

 power in agriculture. 



Plowing. The first plow was simply a "sharpened piece of 

 wood or the crotched limb of a tree," and was evolved from 

 the hoe. Some of the earliest plows were drawn by two men, 

 while two others kept them in the ground. The form represent- 

 ed on Egyptian monuments (3,000 B. C.) is an improvement 

 on the hooked stick. Chinese historians say that the first plows 

 in China were made 2,737 B. C. The plow described by Homer 

 was a composite piece drawn by oxen or mules. The early 

 Romans had no cast steel or iron, and their implement was es- 

 sentially like that of the Germans. The first use of metal on a 

 plow is unknown, but before the time of Christ the Romans 

 yoked the steer to one with a "shining share." The ancient 

 Egyptians and Assyrians had plows pointed or edged with iron. 

 These primitive implements turned no furrow, but simply 

 stirred the ground. Those of the Greeks 2,000 years ago had 

 wheels supporting the beams, and similar forms are found 

 depicted in Saxon manuscripts. 



The rude primitive plow seems to have been almost univer- 

 sally the first agricultural implement drawn by beasts of bur- 

 den. The constancy of the type among different peoples is 

 remarkable. Under uncivilized or frontier conditions it nearly 

 always appears, and its persistence is very great. In the 

 United States plows were worked in Virginia as early as 1617. 



