40 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



was the addition of a mold-board, to turn the earth over. This was 

 made of wood, and maintained its place until very recently. The iron 

 plow is a modern invention. 



No plow can be adapted to all kinds of work, and no good farmer 

 will attempt to do all with one, or with those of the same shape. 

 Some land should be plowed flat, some in ridges, some stirred, some 

 with the furrow all one way, and some both ways. Some prefer a 

 plow which turns to the right, some to the left, and for successful side- 

 hill plowing, one is wanted which can be changed so as to plow back 

 and forth. , 



One of the most useful and least known, is the sub-soil plow. The 

 use of this is to follow the turning plow, entering the bottom of the 

 furrow and performing one of the most useful operations upon the 

 farm, stirring and loosening up the sub-soil. All these, of all sizes, 

 from a few pounds weight up to a load for one yoke of oxen, without 

 entering the earth, can now be had at prices extraordinarily low, 

 when compared with those made by hand ; for skill, science and ma- 

 chinery have been applied to the manufacture of these implements, 

 within a few years past, to an extent but little thought of by those 

 who use them. 



The shovel plow, still in almost universal use throughout the cotton- 

 growing States, is still more rude in its construction. It is usually 

 made of a roughly hewn stick for a beam, about 2 inches square and 

 3 feet long, about midway of which another stick about 15 inches long 

 is framed in, upon the end of which a piece -of iron, much resembling 

 a sharp-pointed shovel, is fastened by one or two short screw bolts. 

 Two rough handles pinned to the side of the beam and supported at 

 the proper angle by a wooden support, with a clevis, or a piece of 

 bark, withe or loop of raw hide at the forward end of the beam, com- 

 pletes the tool by which more than half the cotton fields of America 

 are plowed. The whole may weigh fifteen pounds the iron part 

 from two to four, and its. shape may be imagined by putting your two 

 hands together edgewise a little curved, with the backs up. The 

 action as it is drawn forward, rooting through the loose soil, is to stir 

 the surface about 2 inches deep ; it does not turn it over, though 

 there is an implement called a turning shovel, made with a sort of 

 twist to the share, which has the effect to give the dirt a slight roll 

 like a small mold-board. 



There is another modification of this tool called a bull-tonjnie, the 



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share being of the shape of that article, and fixed upon the same kind 

 of a stock as the shovel. This is a slight advance upon the form of 

 the first plow of which we have any account. As represented on 

 ancient coin's and monuments, it is probable it was little else than a 

 crooked stick, afterward improved by sharpening with iron. The 

 implement now in use in Hindostan is little better than the original, and 

 even in this country some of those above described as now in use, are 

 but slightly in advance of the Hindoo article, which consists of a 

 slight beam, a narrow share and a corresponding stick with a handle 

 to guide it. 



