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History of Technology 3: The Plow 112 Views
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Description:
Buckle up. We're going to plow through the history of the plow. ...Hey, stop booing, that joke was just asking to be told.
Transcript
- 00:03
So we've talked about the slow transition from hunting to farming and [Girl and boy talking in a room]
- 00:07
we've hit the process of domesticating plants and animals and if you miss
- 00:11
either of those videos well your loss they were amazing seriously we're
- 00:15
expecting the academy award now anyday well like any good series these days [Girl and boy on stage as audience watches and cheers]
- 00:22
we're going to go one step further and make it a trilogy and who's the star of
Full Transcript
- 00:26
our third video oh it's the plow well we're not talking about the plows that
- 00:30
pile up snow on our driveways right after we shoveled ha, jerks! [Snow plow drives into a woman]
- 00:34
we're talking about the plow that turns over soil and makes it ready for seeds
- 00:38
well plows are one of the most important and fundamental tools in Agriculture's
- 00:42
technological history and different societies have been improving them for [Two guys inspecting a plow up close]
- 00:46
thousands of years. Well here are a few reasons we should all care about plows
- 00:50
number one they have feelings you monster number two plows let people [Boy plowing a field]
- 00:55
plant way way bigger fields of crops that means larger populations of people
- 01:00
can live in the same place which in turns means you guessed it cities so yep [A road with trees either side and a crop city population road sign]
- 01:05
plowing the earth makes fields more productive but it also has some unintended [A mechanical plow plowing through a field]
- 01:10
environmental effects like erosion and degradation man nothing in the world is
- 01:15
ever purely good except candy.. shut up Dennis alright moving on once folks [Boy eating candy and tells girl to shh]
- 01:21
hooked animals up to plows the amount of human labor that went into farming
- 01:24
took a steep dive but as any old-timey farmer can tell you driving an ox thats
- 01:29
pulling a plow is still no cakewalk protip modern plows work [Man reading a book in a deserted field]
- 01:35
a lot like ancient ones but there have been nifty improvements along the way like
- 01:39
making them out of metal and hooking them up to giant tractors much less you [Girls discussing how much they miss ancient plows]
- 01:44
know but some farmers and gardeners today think
- 01:48
plowing does more harm than good why well first and foremost plows break [People on a street protesting that plows are bad]
- 01:52
up the tough compacted layer of soil on the surface over a season of getting
- 01:58
walked on rained on and baked in the sun that dirt is usually pretty hard new
- 02:02
little baby seedlings wouldn't have a chance while plowing also mercilessly [Hardened soil with the sun beaming down]
- 02:06
kills most of the weeds, oh poor weeds it either slices through their roots or
- 02:11
turns them under a layer of soil not a great time to be a baby seedling [plants beginning to grow from seedlings above the soil]
- 02:16
but it's not all bad news crops need lots of delicious nutrients
- 02:20
like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus plowing can help bring those nutrients
- 02:24
closer to the surface where plants can get at it mmm yum nutrients and some kind [boy playing pacman]
- 02:30
of plows lead deep furrows in the fields long shallow ditches that keeps crops
- 02:34
from being around in wet climates when the growing season is over some farmers
- 02:38
plow their crops back into the soil to help supply next year's nutrients YUM [Two people stood outside a Plant Yum store]
- 02:43
decomposed plant matter.. err nothing like it actually that doesn't sound any good at
- 02:49
all we'll take Taco Bell over that any day [Boy telling a girl they should try a new fast food place]
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