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Ard (plough)
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Ard (plough)
The ard, ard plough, or scratch plough is a simple light plough without a mouldboard. It is symmetrical on either side of its line of draft and is fitted with a symmetrical share that traces a shallow furrow but does not invert the soil. It began to be replaced in China by the heavy carruca turnplough in the 1st century, and in most of Europe from the 7th century.
In its simplest form it resembles a hoe, consisting of a draft-pole (either composite or a single piece) pierced with a nearly vertical, wooden, spiked head (or stock) which is dragged through the soil by draft animals and very rarely by people. The ard-head is at one end a stilt (handle) for steering and at the other a share (cutting blade) which gouges the surface ground. More sophisticated models have a composite pole, where the section attached to the head is called the draft-beam, and the share may be made of stone or iron. Some have a cross-bar for handles or two separate stilts for handles (two-handled ard). The share comes in two basic forms: a socket share slipped over the nose of the ard-head; and the tang share fitted into a groove where it is held with a clamp on the wooden head. Additionally, a slender protruding chisel (foreshare) can be fitted over the top of the mainshare.
Rather than cutting and turning the soil to produce ridged furrows, the ard breaks up a narrow strip of soil and cuts a shallow furrow (or drill), leaving intervening strips undisturbed. The ard is not suited for clearing new land, so grass and undergrowth are usually removed with hoes or mattocks. Cross-ploughing, where the soil is tilled a second time at right angles to the first, is often necessary to break the soil up better. This usually results in square or diamond-shaped fields and is effective at clearing annual weeds. The ard's shallow furrows are ideal for most cereals, and if the seed is sown broadcast, the ard can be used to cover the seed in rows. In fact, the ard may have been invented in the Near East to cover seed rather than till.[citation needed] That would explain why in Mesopotamia seed drills were used together with ards.[original research?] The ard is most useful on light soils such as loams or sands, or in mountain fields where the soil is thin, and can be safely used in areas where deep ploughing would turn up hardpan or would cause salination or erosion.
Ards may be drawn by oxen, water buffalo, donkeys, camels, or other animals.
Ards come in a number of varieties. Based on use, there are two kinds: the tilth ard, for cutting furrows in cleared land, and the rip ard, or sod buster, which has a hooked share that gouges deeper into the soil and more effectively clears virgin or fallow land. The two were in early times used in conjunction with each other. Third is the seed drill ard, used specifically in Mesopotamia, which added a funnel for dropping seed in the furrows as the ard cut them.
The earliest and most basic tilth ards are the two-piece models:
The bow ard is the weaker, narrower, and probably earlier of the two. It is used for shallow tillage, normally with a tang share, in dry, stony soils. It is restricted mainly to the Mediterranean (Spain, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon), Ethiopia, Iran, and eastern India and Sumatra. The more widespread body ard, sturdier and heavier for deeper tillage (in soils with enough moisture), usually has a socket share which is sometimes laterally extended or has serrated wings (Balkans, Morocco, Portugal, Spain) for better mixing of soil and cutting of weeds. It had a short portion of the body which was first made to slide on the furrow bottom and gradually developed into a horizontal body. The body ard dominates in Portugal, western Spain, the Balkans, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, and most of Latin America.
The bow ard favored the development of a long horizontal sole body (slade) sliding on the ground. This led to the sole ard, first attested in Bronze Age Cyprus, being single-handled and consisting of a flat sole (or slade) into which were set the draft-pole and stilt, meaning there were three separate pieces. Their use in Ancient Greek agriculture was described by Hesiod. In northern Europe the single-handled crook ard was favored, consisting of a stilt inserted into a pole with a crook-shaft, i.e., the pole had a curved shape and had a natural crook tip that served as a share.
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Ard (plough)
The ard, ard plough, or scratch plough is a simple light plough without a mouldboard. It is symmetrical on either side of its line of draft and is fitted with a symmetrical share that traces a shallow furrow but does not invert the soil. It began to be replaced in China by the heavy carruca turnplough in the 1st century, and in most of Europe from the 7th century.
In its simplest form it resembles a hoe, consisting of a draft-pole (either composite or a single piece) pierced with a nearly vertical, wooden, spiked head (or stock) which is dragged through the soil by draft animals and very rarely by people. The ard-head is at one end a stilt (handle) for steering and at the other a share (cutting blade) which gouges the surface ground. More sophisticated models have a composite pole, where the section attached to the head is called the draft-beam, and the share may be made of stone or iron. Some have a cross-bar for handles or two separate stilts for handles (two-handled ard). The share comes in two basic forms: a socket share slipped over the nose of the ard-head; and the tang share fitted into a groove where it is held with a clamp on the wooden head. Additionally, a slender protruding chisel (foreshare) can be fitted over the top of the mainshare.
Rather than cutting and turning the soil to produce ridged furrows, the ard breaks up a narrow strip of soil and cuts a shallow furrow (or drill), leaving intervening strips undisturbed. The ard is not suited for clearing new land, so grass and undergrowth are usually removed with hoes or mattocks. Cross-ploughing, where the soil is tilled a second time at right angles to the first, is often necessary to break the soil up better. This usually results in square or diamond-shaped fields and is effective at clearing annual weeds. The ard's shallow furrows are ideal for most cereals, and if the seed is sown broadcast, the ard can be used to cover the seed in rows. In fact, the ard may have been invented in the Near East to cover seed rather than till.[citation needed] That would explain why in Mesopotamia seed drills were used together with ards.[original research?] The ard is most useful on light soils such as loams or sands, or in mountain fields where the soil is thin, and can be safely used in areas where deep ploughing would turn up hardpan or would cause salination or erosion.
Ards may be drawn by oxen, water buffalo, donkeys, camels, or other animals.
Ards come in a number of varieties. Based on use, there are two kinds: the tilth ard, for cutting furrows in cleared land, and the rip ard, or sod buster, which has a hooked share that gouges deeper into the soil and more effectively clears virgin or fallow land. The two were in early times used in conjunction with each other. Third is the seed drill ard, used specifically in Mesopotamia, which added a funnel for dropping seed in the furrows as the ard cut them.
The earliest and most basic tilth ards are the two-piece models:
The bow ard is the weaker, narrower, and probably earlier of the two. It is used for shallow tillage, normally with a tang share, in dry, stony soils. It is restricted mainly to the Mediterranean (Spain, Tunisia, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon), Ethiopia, Iran, and eastern India and Sumatra. The more widespread body ard, sturdier and heavier for deeper tillage (in soils with enough moisture), usually has a socket share which is sometimes laterally extended or has serrated wings (Balkans, Morocco, Portugal, Spain) for better mixing of soil and cutting of weeds. It had a short portion of the body which was first made to slide on the furrow bottom and gradually developed into a horizontal body. The body ard dominates in Portugal, western Spain, the Balkans, India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, and most of Latin America.
The bow ard favored the development of a long horizontal sole body (slade) sliding on the ground. This led to the sole ard, first attested in Bronze Age Cyprus, being single-handled and consisting of a flat sole (or slade) into which were set the draft-pole and stilt, meaning there were three separate pieces. Their use in Ancient Greek agriculture was described by Hesiod. In northern Europe the single-handled crook ard was favored, consisting of a stilt inserted into a pole with a crook-shaft, i.e., the pole had a curved shape and had a natural crook tip that served as a share.
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