Re: Most Important Invention

[Dan Minette]

I think that the greatest invention of the last 2000 years is the horse
collar.  The horse collar allowed a field to be plowed with one horse
attached to the plow instead of a team of oxen.  The difference between the
amount of food that a single horse needs and the amount a team of oxen needs
is a significant fraction of the yield of a field.

One needs to remember that, around the time the horse collar was invented,
Europe was devolving. Fields reverted to woods, for lack of cultivation.