Plough
![Traditional ploughing: a farmer works the land with horses and plough](/Images/godic/202501/17/Farmer_plowing_in_Fahrenwalde,_Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,_Germany2215.jpg")
![Modern tractor ploughing in South Africa. This plough has five non-reversible mouldboards. The fifth, empty furrow on the left may be filled by the first furrow of the next pass.](/Images/godic/202501/17/Plough2216.JPG")
![Ploughing with oxen. A miniature from an early-sixteenth-century manuscript of the Middle English poem God Spede þe Plough, held at the British Museum](/Images/godic/202501/17/Ploughmen_Fac_simile_of_a_Miniature_in_a_very_ancient_Anglo_Saxon_Manuscript_published_by_Shaw_with_legend_God_Spede_ye_Plough_and_send_us_Korne_enow2216.png")
![Oxen driven ploughing](/Images/godic/202501/17/Traditional_Farming_Methods_and_Equipments2216.jpg")
A plough (UK) or plow (US; both /ˈplaʊ/) is a tool or Farm implement used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting to loosen or turn the soil. Ploughs are traditionally drawn by working animals such as horses or cattle, but in modern times may be drawn by tractors. A plough may be made of wood, iron, or steel frame with an attached blade or stick used to cut the earth. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, although written references to the plough do not appear in English until 1100 CE at which point it is referenced frequently. The plough represents one of the major advances in agriculture.