280 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



resolved that " east iron plows do make the weeds grow." It was 

 as late as 1810 before plows, made entirely of iron, were in com- 

 mon use. 



In the year 1803, this same Mr. Ransom obtained a patent for 

 case-hardening- or chill-hardening- shares. This was an important 

 improvement, as is fully shown by the fact that it proved of such 

 practical utility that it was extended to other parts, and has been 

 handed down to the present time, both in England and in this 

 country. The process and the effect are so well understood that it 

 needs no description from me. Mr. Ransom's plow may be taken 

 as a representative of the utmost perfection to which the art of 

 plow-making has reached in England at the present time. 



In this country improvements in. plows were met with even 

 greater opposition, and were slower in making their way into public 

 favor than they were in England. Thus there is no trace of their 

 ever having been a plow made on the principles laid down by Mr. 

 Jefferson, save those made by himself. The first American, after 

 Mr. Jefferson, who set himself about improving the plows in use 

 in tliis country, was a man by the name of Charles Newbold of 

 New Jersey. He made the first cast iron plow ever made in 

 America, and obtained letters patent for it dated June 26, 1797. 

 This was thirty years after Mr. Small's cast iron plow had gone 

 into general use in Scotland. The inventor used it successfully 

 himself, and spent $30,000 in perfecting and trying to introduce 

 it, but all to no purpose. The farmers' prejudices were so strong 

 against any improvements, their opposition to new fangled notions 

 so great, that they could not be induced to use them. In some 

 way they got the unaccountable notion that the cast iron plow 

 " poisoned the land, injured its fertility," and like the same kind 

 in England " made the weeds grow." Consequently they adhered 

 to their old notions and used their miserable old plows for many 

 years before they were enlightened enough to see any advantage 

 that these improved plows possessed. 



Numerous patents were granted for plows near the beginning of 

 the present century, the most important of which was one granted 

 to David Peacock of New Jersey, dated April 1, 1807. This re- 

 sembled Mr. Newbold's plow in form, but was cast in three parts 

 instead of being all in one piece like Mr. Newbold's. There were 

 improvements added to thip plow from time to time, one of which 

 was the famous lock coulter. These phnvs were extensively used 

 throughout the country, and many of them were to be found in 



