Label the Parts of a Plow – Worksheet With a Key

All 13 parts on the diagram

Show the list

Whole plow 7

Moldboard The big curved plate. It takes the slice of soil from the share, lifts it and turns it over.
Share The cutting blade at the bottom. It cuts the slice of soil loose from the ground below.
Beam The long bar the rest of the plow hangs from. It may be wood or steel.
Handles The plowman walks behind and steers the plow by its two handles.
Clevis The hitch at the front of the beam. The team is hooked on here. Its holes adjust the plow.
Coulter A rolling coulter, a sharp disc. It cuts straight down through the ground ahead of the moldboard.
Jointer A small plow of its own. It turns a thin strip of turf into the furrow ahead of the main slice.

Plow bottom 6

Frog The foundation of the plow bottom. The share, the moldboard and the landside are all bolted to it.
Landside The flat bar that slides along the wall of the furrow. It takes the sideways push as the soil is turned.
Heel The back end of the landside. With the point and the wing, it is one of three places where the bottom rests.
Point The front tip of the share. It enters the ground first.
Wing The outside back corner of the share, farthest from the point.
Shin The moldboard's lower front corner, its leading edge just above the share.

How this list was compiled: Part names checked on 2026-09-30; a name is kept only when two independent sources use it. (1) Davidson and Chase, Farm Machinery and Farm Motors, 1908, public domain, https://archive.org/details/farmmachineryan00chasgoog (its numbered list of the parts of a walking plow: share with its point and its heel or wing, moldboard with its shin, landside, frog, beam, clevis or hitch, handles, coulter; and the jointer). (2) Ramsower, Equipment for the Farm and the Farmstead, 1917, public domain, https://archive.org/details/cu31924080030616 (moldboard, share, landside, frog, shin, the point, the heel of the landside and the wing of the share, beam, clevis, jointer, rolling coulter). (3) Scoates, Farm Machinery Laboratory Manual, 1921, public domain, https://archive.org/details/farmmachinerylab01scoa (its walking plow exercise: moldboard, shin, share, point, wing, landside, heel, frog, beam, clevis, handles, coulters and jointers). (4) Wikipedia, Plough, text only, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plough (beam, hitch, coulter, share, mouldboard, frog, landside, shin, handles, and what the share, the mouldboard and the coulter do). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; own work, no maker's model copied. Licence: own work

How it works

To label the parts of a plow, write a name on the line for each number. Numbers 1 to 7 are on the whole plow, seen from the side. Numbers 8 to 13 are on its bottom, taken apart underneath.

Read the full guide

Plow worksheet word bank

In alphabetical order, to copy onto the board. Whole plow: beam, clevis, coulter, handles, jointer, moldboard, share. Plow bottom: frog, heel, landside, point, shin, wing.

The numbers on the plow bottom

The moldboard and the share are drawn twice and numbered once, on the whole plow. In the lower drawing four numbers mark a patch and not a whole piece: 11 and 12 on the share, 13 on the moldboard, 10 on the long flat bar. One old textbook calls the outside corner of the share the heel or wing. On this sheet that corner is the wing, and the heel is the patch on the bar.

The braces that join the handles to the beam are drawn, but have no number.
When marking, also accept the British spelling mouldboard, hitch for the clevis and stilts for the handles.

Questions and answers

What is a plow used for?

Loosening or turning the soil before seed is sown. Turning over the top layer brings fresh nutrients to the surface and buries weeds and crop remains, which then decay.

What is a furrow?

The trench a plow cuts. The share and the moldboard lift a strip of soil and roll it over to one side, and the gap left where the strip lay is the furrow.

Is it plow or plough?

Both are right. Plow is the American spelling and plough the British one.

What is a walking plow?

One the plowman walks behind, holding a handle on each side to direct it. Riding plows came soon after the first steel walking plows: wheels carry the plow, and the plowman sits on a seat.