Crossword Dictionary
plow
plow, plough - n
a farm tool having one or more heavy blades to break the soil and cut a furrow prior to sowing
plow, plows, plough, plowed, replow, plowing, plowable, unplowed - v
to turn up land with a plow
plow, also spelled plough, most important agricultural implement since the beginning of history, used to turn and break up soil, to bury crop residues, and to help control weeds.
Rotary plows or tillers (sometimes called rototillers) have curved cutting knives mounted on a horizontal power-driven shaft. The pronged rotary hoe, a plow used chiefly for seedbed and weed control, works well at high speed. Garden sizes cut swaths from about 0.3 to 0.8 metre (1 to 2.5 feet) wide; tractor types, more than 3 metres (10 feet).
Deep tillage implements, used chiefly to break up hardpan and packed soils, include the subsoiler and the chisel plow. The subsoiler must be pulled by a heavy tractor, for its steel-pointed shank is capable of penetrating the subsoil to a depth of nearly one metre (three feet). The chisel plow, or ripper, has several rigid or spring-toothed shanks with double pointed shovels mounted on a transverse bar at intervals of 0.3 to 0.9 metres (one to three feet). Plowing depths vary from shallow to a half metre (1.5 feet).