URBANDALE, Iowa (RFD News) — Farming has come a long way since the nation’s founding.
Mike Witmer with Iowa’s Living History Farms says early prairie farmers relied on animal power to prepare the soil for their crops.
“Typical crew would be a couple of men, one to drive the oxen and one to work the plow, six to eight oxen. The plow would be pulled by three to four teams, and then a boy, a dog, and a pony. The boy and the pony were taking plow shares back and forth to the local blacksmith to be sharpened. You often had to change plow shares midday so you could keep a sharp one on the plow. It usually came with a set of three, one’s at the blacksmith’s sharp, ready to go and be installed. There’s one on the plow and there’s one in transit going back and forth. That’s what the boy and the pony were for. The dog was to help herd up the cattle in the morning to get them ready and in yoke.”
Animal-powered tillage was eventually phased out as steam power became more widely used in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
