Farm-Work And Words (Signed) by Macgregor, Gregor - 2013

Angus, Scotland: Finavon, 2013. Soft cover. As New. P/B 98 pages, condition is As New, Signed by the author. Farming is probably the oldest industry in the world, and early man would have used a piece of tree branch with a crude point to stir or dig the soil to achieve a suitable mould or tilth to enable seed to germinate better and flourish as a crop. Eventually digging sticks made way for wooden ploughs pulled mostly by oxen, horses, mules, camels and buffaloes. Greeks, Romans, Anglo-Saxons and the Chinese were some of the early innovators in making the ploughs. By the 18th century, ploughs were fitted with cast iron mould boards that turned the soil over more efficiently, and were pulled mainly by horses. Nowadays reversible or one-way ploughs pulled by tractors is the norm for preparing fields for tilling, sowing and planting etc; so giving maximum yields if all things are considered equal. Irrespective of what modern science has done in helping to grow crops to sustain as much of the world's population as possible, the plough still plays the most important part in producing food.