Ploughs and Ploughing: some reflections from the headland
On Plough Monday, MERL Curator, Dr Ollie Douglas, discusses his appearance on Radio 4 Farming Today’s special programme on ploughing, and the MERL’s collection of ploughs.
Steam Ploughing
Born in Wiltshire into a Quaker family, John Fowler (1826-1864) became one of Britain’s most successful agricultural engineers and invented steam ploughing. Fowler was concerned with the cost of manual labour needed when cultivating land. In the 1850s he came up with the idea of using steam power instead. His method was to set a […]