SECRETARY'S REPORT. 59 



says: " Althougli no one form of mould-board will or can be 

 applicable to every variety of soil and circumstance, there is 

 no description of soil for which a perfect mould-board may 

 not be made by this rule in some of its modifications." 



Tlic first patent for a cast-iron plough in this country is 

 believed to have been that of Newbold, in 1797, and so far 

 improved was the model of this first cast-iron plough, that 

 Peacock, in his patent of 1807, paid the original inventor of 

 the plough of 1797 the sum of $500 for the privilege of copying 

 some parts of it. 



Cast-iron ploughs had been previously manufactured in Scot- 

 land by James Small, who established a manufactory in 1763. 

 It was a fortunate coincidence that the founding of cast-iron 

 was introduced about the same time, and it occurred to him to 

 make patterns of the principal parts of the plough, the mould- 

 board, the sole and landside, in order that precise duplicates 

 might be multiplied to any extent. Hence arose the cast-iron 

 plough, now in general use in Great Britain ; but whether the 

 American inventor had a knowledge of the existence of these 

 ploughs is not now known. 



Tlie state of agriculture at the beginning of the present cen- 

 tury was such that the successive changes and improvements, 

 both in Great Britain and in this country, were not adopted by 

 the great mass of farmers. Their introduction was, of course, 

 far slower than that of any improved implement would be at 

 the present time, though the prejudice against the use of new 

 articles is not yet wholly removed. But though the prejudice 

 against the cast-iron plough, both in this country and elsewhere, 

 was at first very strong, they gradually gained tlic good will of 

 practical farmers, till they entirely supplanted the old wooden 

 models. 



Among the innumerable modifications of the plough in mod- 

 ern times, tliat known as the side-hill plough was of a very 

 early date, among the earliest of modern improvements, in fact, 

 and it has still held its ground after undergoing many succes- 

 sive changes," till it has assumed the following form, called the 

 swivel, and numbered 83, in the catalogue referred to. 



