276 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



giving- employment to hundred of thousands of ready hands would 

 cease their hum and remain silent monuments of past greatness, 

 should the plow for a season only refuse to turn its furrows. Our 

 commerce, now floating ships upon every sea, would find its busi- 

 ness stagnate, and the vessels would remain idle at the wharves. 

 It would be difficult picturing the utter stagnation of business, the 

 desolation, the want and hunger which would be induced should 

 the plow cease its labors only for one year. A contemplation of 

 the picture will give us an idea of the value of the implement 

 which contributes so much to our prosperity and happiness, and 

 to which we are indebted for our daily bread. 



An implement of so great importance may justly claim our at- 

 tention for a few minutes in collating its history, though the time 

 given to this must necessarily be brief, and the account fragmen- 

 tary on account of the more urgent claims of other branches of the 

 .subject under consideration. Only some of the prominent points 

 in its history will be alluded to, and this in a somewhat rambling 

 and disconnected manner, on account of necessary brevity. I 

 shall leap from point to point without attempting to insert the fill- 

 ,7ng necessary to round it into perfect fullness. The facts here 

 .collected have been culled from vai-ious sources. For many of 

 ■ them I am indebted to the Report of the Utica Plow Trial, pub- 

 lished by the New York State Agricultural Society. This, so far 

 as I know, is the only attempt to furnish a connected history of 

 the plow ever published in this country. 



The earliest record we have of an implement resembling a plow 

 in any degree, is that of a forked stick, with the Inng m pre- 

 pared for the team to draw by, and the short arm sharpened for 

 entering the ground. Modifications of this rude implement, with 

 some slight improvements perhaps, were the best in use in the 

 days of Cato and Cincinnatus, and agrees with the description 

 given by Virgil in the Georgics. A decided improvement, how- 

 ever, was soon after introduced, consisting of an iron shield, or 

 cover, to the point ; and with this attachment it is found in use in 

 some parts of the world at the present time. 



It was not till somewhere about the eleventh century that the 

 idea of a wedge form for a plow for the purpose of removing the 

 furrow from the path of the plow, in order that a space might be 

 left clear for the next furrow, began to dawn upon the mind of man. 

 The coulter for dividing the furrow slice from the land was also 

 introduced about this time. It was not till still later, though the 



