Introduction to agricultural machinery
The origin of agricultural machinery can be traced back to the era when simple agricultural tools were used in primitive society. In China, the primitive tillage tool, the Leisi, was already in existence during the Yangshao culture period of the Neolithic Age (approximately 5000-3000 BC). Copper plowshares were used for oxen plowing in the 13th century BC. By the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period in the 3rd century BC, a series of iron and wooden agricultural tools for tilling, sowing, harvesting, processing and irrigation were already available. Around 90 BC, the Zhao State invented the three-row hoe, or three-row seed drill, whose basic structure is still used today. By the 9th century, a fairly complete animal-powered plow had been formed. In ancient books such as Qi Min Yao Shu (approximately 540), Leisi Jing (approximately 880), Wang Zhen's Agricultural Book (approximately 1310), and Tian Gong Kai Wu (1637), there are detailed records of various machines and tools used in agricultural production in different periods. In the West, the original wooden plow originated in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and iron plowshares began to be used around 1000 BC.
From the 19th century to the early 20th century, it was the era of the development and extensive use of new animal-powered agricultural machinery. In 1831, C.H. McCormick of the United States successfully invented the horse-drawn harvester. In 1836, the first horse-drawn grain combine harvester appeared. Between 1850 and 1855, grain planters, mowers, and corn planters were successively manufactured and promoted. In the early 20th century, tractors powered by internal combustion engines began to gradually replace livestock, and were widely used as traction power in various field operations and to drive various fixed agricultural machinery.
In the late 1930s, H.G. Ferguson of the United Kingdom successfully invented the tractor's agricultural implement suspension system, which made the tractor and agricultural implements form a whole, greatly improving the use and operation performance of the tractor. The agricultural implement suspension system operated by the hydraulic system also makes the operation and control of agricultural implements lighter and more flexible. The agricultural machinery that matches the tractor gradually changed from traction type to suspension type and semi-suspension type, which reduced the weight of agricultural machinery and simplified its structure. Since the 1940s, the grain combine harvesters in Europe and the United States have gradually changed from traction type to self-propelled type. In the 1960s, harvesting machinery for fruits and vegetables was developed. Since the 1970s, electronic technology has been gradually applied to the monitoring and control of the operation process of agricultural machinery, and gradually developed towards the automation of the operation process.
