Plow

PLOW. That the plow is the most important implement of tillage, is beyond question. Not withstanding that we have historical evidence in the Book of Job (probably the most ancient of biblical writings) that the plow was used in his day, and through successive generations and centuries, evidence of its use until we come down to the time of the enlightened Grecian and Roman periods, the crude implement of Abraham, undoubtedly of Egyptian, if not of Chinese origin, was but little improved. An implement originally a fire hardened, pointed share, with a handle and beam for draft. In the article Agriculture will be found cuts of these most ancient implements. Notwithstanding the great antiquity of the plow, but little real improve ment was made over the form of the Roman plow until within the last two hundred years, and like the history of all great inventions, the last forty years have witnessed the greatest practical improvement, in ease of draft, certainty in turning correct furrows, according to the nature of the soil; in deep tillage and the various conditions desired in culture, and, most iffiport ant of all, the certainty of a surface to the metallic parts that shall scour and retain their polish even in the most adhesive soils, some of which; in the West, long baffled the practical science of our best inventors East and West. To show something of the state of plows and plow ing in England in the last century, Adam Dick son, in his voluminous work on agriculture, in the early part of the century, speaking of the plows of the ancients, says: It is probable that I shall be considered as very partial to the ancients, if I dp not allow the moderns to excel them in the cbnstruction of their plows. We are not, indeed, so well acquainted with the ancient plows as to make a just comparison. I shall only observe, that from the few passages in the rustic authors concerning them, it appears that the ancients had all the different kinds of plows that we have now in Europe, though not perhaps so exactly constructed. They had plows with out mold-boards and plows with mold-boards ; they had plows with coulters and plows without coulters; they had plows with wheels and ploivs without wheels; they had broad-pointed shares and narrow-pointed shares; they even had what I have not yet seen among the moderns, shares not only with sharp sides and points, but also with high raised cutting tops. Were we well acquainted with the construction of all these, perhaps it would be found that the improvements made by the moderns in this implement are not great as many persons are apt to imagine While Mr. Dickson probably estimated the skill of the ancient plowmakers from the classical stand point of a scholar, lie was certainly correct in a sense as compared with the plows in common use, just as we to-day, while every neighborhood contains plows adapted to every variety of work, nevertheless see the majority of small farmers using one plow for all work, and that perhaps not of the best pattern. Yet in England in Mr. Dickson's time, there were, it is probable, plows far superior to any the ancients ever used ; for it is not to be supposed they would depict their inferior implements and leave unpictured the superior ones. So far as we of the present day are informed the plows of the ancients, and also of the moderns, for the first thousand years after Christ, and indeed up to nearly the eighteenth century, were of the rudest description, hardly two alike. The beams cumbrous, and, as were the handles, hewed from the branches of trees, the mold-boards and landsides and the shares even of wood, simply strapped and pointed with iron at the principal wearing points. Indeed we have ourselves seen within the last forty years, and have used tbr breaking prairie in Cook county, Ill., a plow hut little better than this. The cele brated Daniel Webster plow, exhibit( d at our Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and which he helped to make and used, was mostly of wood, au uncouth, cumbrous implement requiring the force of several yokes of oxen to move. This plow might as well have left the impression of the improved plow of that day. It was made for a special purpose, to work among grubs and stones, and undoubtedly per formed its work tolerably well. To-day, we have plows that with three horses will do rnore and bet ter work than did this Leviathan of plows drawn by five or six yokes of oxen. As showing the improvements in progress in England, during the latter part of the eighteenth century, and the development of the draft rod, Small's chain plow was a notable improvement, The plow, as improved by Small, has since become cele brated by subsequent improvements, as the East Lothian plow. Taking up now the history of plows in America, Mr. A. B. Allen, in the Report of the New York State Agricultural Society for 1856, describes the plowmaker's art, in the early part of the century, in the United States, as follows: A winding tree was cut down, and a mold-board hewed from it, with the grain of the timber running so nearly along its shape as it could well be obtained. On to this mold board, to prevent its wearing out too rapidly, were nailed the blade of an old hoe, thin straps of iron, or worn-out horse shoes. The land side was of wood, its base and sides shod with thin plates of iron. The share was of iron, with a hardened steel point. The coulter was tolerably well made of iron, steel edged, and locked into the share nearly as it does in the improved lock coulter plow of the present day. The beam was usually a straight stick. The handles, like the mold-board, split from the crooked trunk of a tree, or as often cut from its branches; the crooked roots of the white ash were the most favorite timber for plow handles in the Northern States. The beam was set at any pitch that fancy might dictate, with the handles fastened on almost at right angles with it, leaving the plowman little control over his implement, which did its work in a very slow and imperfect manner.

Curious, is is not, that the same idea prevailed among the primitive American husbandruen, in the year 1800, that instigated the primitive hus bandmen of 3,000 years previous, a crotched limb, natural crooks, roughly hewed, and the addition of hits of iron roughly fastened to the wearing points. To the scientific mind of Jefferson are we indebted for the first demonstration of the true principles upon which the plow should be constructed. Traveling in France and Ger many in the year 1788, his spirit of observation led him frequently to alight and examine the working implements of the farmers there. Sur prised at the uncouth forms of their plows and harness, at Nancy, the capital of ancient Lor raine, he made the following entry in his jour nal . Oxen plow here with collars and halms. The awkward figure of their mold-boards leads: one to consider what should be its form. The offices of the mold-board are to receive the sod_ after the share has cut under it, to raise it gradu ally and to reverse it. The fore end of it should, therefore, be horizontal, to enter under the sod, and the hind end perpendicular, to throw it over ; the intermediate surface changing gradually from the horizontal to the perpendi cular. It should be as wide as the furrow, and_ of a length suited to the construction of the. plow. Returning home, when secretary or state, under Washington's Administration, he. consulted the celebrated David Rittenhouge, as to whether his plan was founded upon correct mathematical principles. After a careful exami nation it was decided to be demonstrated. In: 1793, this theory of Jefferson's was reduced to, practice. Some years after, tbe discovery of Jefferson was contested by William Amas. This. was in 1808. Mr. Jefferson presented his ideas. to the French Academy, and to the English. Board of Agriculture, who having ample means. of testing any imposture, acknowledged the. invention of Jefferson, and lie was subsequently elected an honorary member of the board. Jefferson, who experimented with the mold board of the plow only, states his conclusions to be that the mold-board of the plow ought not only to, be the continuation of the shield of the share begin ning at its posterior edge, but it must also be in the same plane. Its first funetion is to receive horizontally from the sock the earth, to raise it to the height proper for being turned over ; to present, in its passage, the least possible resis tance, and consequently to require the minimum of moving power. Were its function confined: to this, the wedge would present, no doubt, the. most proper form for practice; but the object is. also to turn over the sod of earth. One of the. edges of the mold-board ought then to have no, elevation, to avoid a useless wasting of force; the other edge ought, on the contrary, to go on ascending until it has passed the perpendicular, in order that the sod miy be inverted by its own weight ; and the inclination of the mold-board must increase gradually from the moment that it has received the sod. In this second function the mold-board then acts like a wedge situated. in an oblique direction, or ascending, the point. of which recedes horizontally on the earth, while the other end continues to rise till it passes the perpendicular. Or, to consider it under another point of view, let us place on the ground a wedge, the breadth of which is equal to that of the share of the plow, and which in length is equal to the share from the wing to the posterior extremity, and the height of the heel is equal to the height of the rear of the share above the sole; draw a diagonal on the upper surface from the left angle of the point to the angle on the right of the upper part. of the heel; slope the face hy making it bevel from the diagonal to the right edge which touches the earth; this half will be the most proper form for discharging the required functions, namely, to remove and turn over gradually the sod, and with the least force possible. If the left of the diagonal be sloped in the same manner, that is to say, if we suppose a straight line, the length of which is equal at least to that of the wedge, applied on the face already sloped, and moving baekwards parallel to itself and to the two ends of the wedge, at the same time that its lower end keeps itself always along the lower -end of the right faee, the result will be a eurved .surface, the essential character of whieh is, that it will be a combination of the principle of the wedge, considered aceording to two directions, which eross each other, and will give what we require, a mold-board presenting the least pos sible resistanee. This mold-board, besides, is attended with the valuable advantage that it can be made by any common workman by a process so exact that its form will not vary the thiekness -of a hair. One of the great faults of this essen tial part of the plow is the want of preeision, beeause workmen having no other guide than the eye, seareely two of them were constructed alike. Following Jefferson, Charles Newbold, of New Jersey, obtained a patent in 1797, said to be the first cast plow ever made in America. The idea of Newbold, as stated in his specifications, was to cast the plow, except the handles and beam, in one pieee, consisting of a bar, sheath, and mold-plate, the sheath serving also for a coulter, .and the mold-board serving also for the share. Previous to this east-iron plow shares were used. Col. John Smith, of St. George's Manor, Suffolk ,county, N. Y., had made and used east-iron plow shares as early as 1794, and furnished with a false edge, to whieh might be attaehed a cut ting edge of iron or steel. Following Charles Newbold, Hezekiah Newbold, of Kentucky, patented a plow in February, 1804. In June of the same. year, John Denver patented an -other. In 1807 a pat ent was granted to David Peaeoek for a plow, and this ended in a lawsuit, as an infringdment on the Newbold patent. The special new feature was the lock eoulter.