44 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



American soil, that a more particular description and slight history of 

 its introduction will be found interesting. In the year 1840, Messrs. 

 Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & Co. imported from Scotland, the first sub- 

 soil plow ever seen in the United States. It was a complicated, 

 expensive, cumbersome affair, as most of the Scotch plows are, and 

 could not be patterned after with any hope of successful introduction 

 among farmers. Feeling satisfied of the benefits that would result to 

 them from the use of a good sub-soil plow, that good genius of the 

 American farmer, Joel Nourse, set his mind to work and produced one, 

 more simple, lighter and cheaper than the imported article. It was 

 tried, proved satisfactory, and the manufactory of various sizes, suited 

 to a team of one to six horses, soon introduced this new farm imple- 

 ment to the notice of many farmers who never had seen or heard of 

 the thing before, but soon learned how to profit by its use. This plow 

 has no mold-board ; the use of it is to enter the bottom of the ordin- 

 ary furrow, and stir up and pulverize the hard sub-soil from 4 to 24 

 inches deep. Upon this the next round of the turning plow lays its 

 usual thickness of furrow slice, thus doubling the depth of tilth. It is 

 especially valuable in land which has a natural hard pan, or in which 

 one has been formed by the tramping of the plow team, or the sliding 

 of that instrument for a hundred years, on the bottom of furrows 

 always plowed just the same depth. Some idea can be formed of the 

 shape of this plow, by supposing the land-side of the common cast-iron 

 one continued in a smooth plate up to the beam, the handles being 

 riveted upon that, like those of a common shovel plow. On the mold- 

 board side of this plate, there is a shelf projecting a couple of inches, 

 running in a gently inclined plane from the lance head like point to 

 the heel, producing exactly the effect that a wedge would do if drawn 

 through the earth, lifting it up and dropping it over the butt, which is 

 2 to 4 inches high. Such is the sub-soil plow, in use in most of the 

 Northern States, and from its efficiency, strength, ease of draft, and 

 cheapness, from >5 to $15, it was thought that perfection had been 

 obtained in that farm implement. ]S!ot so. For this very season 

 these great plow-makers have brought out a new sub-soil plow, as 

 much more simple than their first one, as that is more simple than its 

 Scotch prototype, and yet more effective, and not requiring more than 

 one half the force to propel it ; besides which, it is a self-sharpener. 



A perfect idea of the shape of this plow can be got in the way it 

 was first obtained by Professor Mapes, to whom the manufacturers are 

 indebted lor the original, by taking a piece of paper twice as long as 

 wide, and folding it first end to end, then side to side, then cut off the 

 corners from side to end fold, now make a slight lap at the side folds 

 and lay it down upon the table, the edges will touch all round, while 

 the middle is slightly elevated. Now fancy a smooth piece of hard- 

 ened cast iron of this shape, 20 inches long and 7 wide, with an 

 upright part, 18 inches high, made broad and thin, with edges alike 

 so that it makes no difference which goes forward, screwed to a beam 

 5 feet long, with handles 4 feet long, bolted upon the sides of the beam, 

 held in place by an iron supporter, with a center draft rod and dial 



