STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 137 



sable implement of a noble indnstry, glorious emblem of peace and 

 plenty — an instrument mightier in its effects upon the destinies of 

 the world than the sword or scepter. Egyptian hieroglyphics record 

 the use of the plow in the valley of the Nile five thousand years ago. 

 A forked stick, one prong of which, six feet lo;ig, was the beam ; the 

 other, two feet long, sharpened, was the colter and share. This most 

 antique implement of husbandry has been adopted by all the civil- 

 ized and semi-civilized nations of the earth, and is still in use in 

 parts of Portugal, Spain, Mexico, and other countries, and for more 

 than fifty centuries has time dragged this crooked stick down the ages. 

 It was improved by being shod with iron, when mankind became suf- 

 ciently advanced in mecTianics to work metals. The Bible speaks of 

 plows being "shod with socks of iron and brass," and of the good days 

 "when swords should be beaten into plowshares." The Greeks used 

 two kinds; one the primitive, and one on wheels. The Romans added 

 a colter and mold-board, and in the decline and fail of the Roman 

 Empire the plow shared the fate of all that went to make up the 

 glories of that once great and proud nation. 



Only two centuries have elapsed since improvements were made 

 on its original form and structure. These improvements from time, 

 to time have kept pace with the progress of general industry. One 

 of the triumphs of mechanic arts is the successful introduction of 

 steam plowing. This, with the rotary plow, seems destined to revo- 

 lutionize the system of agriculture. The successful working of these 

 modern appliances, some of which are capable of thoroughly prepar- 

 ing fifty acres a day to a depth unattainable with animal power, is an 

 earnest of what is to come. Who shall doubt that the day is not dis- 

 tant when the steam plow, on prairie, and valleys, and slopes, will 

 till the soil, sow the seed, thrash the crops, clean and sack the grain. 



"Truth is stranger than fiction." If any doubt the probabilities, 

 none can question demonstration. The labors of Hercules are as the 

 efforts of a puny child compared to those of the steam engine. Laden 

 with hundreds of tons of commerce, and conveying palaces filled to 

 repletion with passengers, it leaves behind in the race the swiftest 

 steed as if it were motionless; nor are its triumphs less marked on 

 the sea. 



Agriculture long plodding is to be congratulated that the steam 

 engine, the mightiest of friends, most tractable and useful of servants 

 ever vouchsafed to human genius, is now enlisted in her cause and 

 obedient to her will. The ordinary hand-plow seems to be a very 

 simple machine, but it involves principles so abstruse as to require 

 a high order of intellect and profound learning in mechanics to 

 understand and apply them, so that it shall do the most work with 

 the least friction and repairs. Much mechanical skill and ingenuity 

 has been expended on the plow in bringing it to its present state of 

 perfection, and the field is open for yet greater improvements. Let 

 our schools and colleges thoroughly teach -their classes the principles 

 involved in the plow in all its forms— hand, gang, rotary, and steam. 

 AVhat has been said of the plow, from its incipiency to its most 

 approved pattern, can in general be applied to all the various imple- 

 ments of husbandry, at first so rude and wasteful to labor. It is sur- 

 prising how tenacious agriculture was in holding on to its clumsy 

 and inefficient machinery. Until the last half century the chief 

 implements of harvesting were the reaping-hook or sickle, the scythe, 



18'° 



