PLOWS AND PLOWING. 275 



SECOND DAY. 



Wednesday, August 31. 



The Board meet at 10 o'clock. The first speaker of the morning 

 was Mr. Z. A. Gilbert of Greene, who read the following paper on 



Plows and Plowing. 



The importance of an implement so common as the plow is apt 

 to be overlooked. We admit its importance without much thought, 

 and without realizing the magnitude of the truth to which we are 

 giving assent. The fact is so apparant that it may be put down 

 as a self-evident truth that the plow lies at the foundation of all 

 wealth and of all civilization. So close is its connection with 

 civilization that its mechanical construction has kept even pace 

 with the progress of society ; and to-day may truly be said to be 

 typical of civilization itself in all countries. In barbarous coun- 

 tries, where no vestige of civilization or of progress can be traced, 

 no furrows of even the rudest implement which could be con- 

 sidered as bearing a resemblance to a plow, have ever been turned ; 

 and the experience of the past has proved that none ever will be 

 till the light of civilization shall break upon the darkness of their 

 clouded minds. Among the half civilized nations of the earth, the 

 plow, in all the known past as well as at the present time, is of the 

 rudest construction, and like their civilization, has shown no signs 

 of improvement through all the long years during which their 

 history has been known. 



How unlike this is the plow as we find it among the enlightened, 

 nations of the world. The experience of years of practice in its 

 use, the skill of the intelligent plowman, and the genius of the- 

 skillful mechanic combine to make it what the intelligent farmer of 

 to-day demands. And how wide the contrast between its scien- 

 tific proportions and the rude implement bearing the same name, 

 where science and intelligence are never brought to bear upon its 

 use. The contrast is as striking, the extremes as widely sep-- 

 arated, as between the intelligence, the civilization, and refinement 

 on the one hand, and the ignorance, the superstition and degrada- 

 tion on the other. 



No less does the plow lie at the foundation of wealth. All of 

 power — all of prosperity — all of wealth we as a nation arc at this 

 time blessed with, is dependent fii'st upon the plow, and second to 

 the intelligent hand that guides it. All of our great manufactories 



