A HUNDRED YEAES' PROGRESS. 283 



tlioorize. Theory is at the bottom of all investigatiou, and theory was 

 a bugbear in his imiid. The logical result — that no impro\X'meiit could 

 be reached without iuvestigation — bad no terrors for hiiu. He seldom 

 read. Tlie ^critfen Avord he received with distrust. It might contain 

 principles, and it wasn't principles that he cared anything about, but 

 practice. Xo matter whether founded on wisdom and experience or 

 not, practice was the thing. 



It is probable that the events and the excitements of the Kevolution 

 itself, with the travel, the observation, and the social intercourse which 

 it involved, had much to do with breaking up the impregnable barrier 

 of prejudice and slavery to custom and i^recedent which ruled so 

 strongly in the T)opular mind. Great imssions which reach and stir up 

 the lowest depths of the nation's heart have a liberalizing and pro- 

 gressive influence. They excite thought and awaken a spirit of inquiry. 

 But that the picture is not in the least overdrawn is evident from the 

 fact that here and there are a few specimens left to remind us that the 

 leaven which the early societies infused among the people has not yet 

 l^ermeated the entire mass. 



But time brings its changes. Something more was felt to be needed, 

 and a convention was held in Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, 

 on the 28th of November, 1809, from which grew the Columbian Agricul- 

 tural Society for the Promotion of Eural and Domestic Economy ; and 

 the first exhibition, probably, in this country, was held by that society on 

 the 10th of May, 1810, with the offer of liberal premiums for the en- 

 couragement of sheep-raising, «S:c. Elkanah Watson exhibited three 

 merino sheep m Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in the October following of 

 the same year. It was an innovatioH upon old custom, and the occasion 

 of much ridicule and contempt among the farmers of that day and gener- 

 ation, but it Mas the germ of the Berkshire County Agricultural So- 

 ciety, whose regular exhibitions began the year following, and are be- 

 lieved to have been the first county exhibitions ever instituted in this 

 country. 



The Massachusetts Society held its first exhibition at Brighton in 

 1816, oilered a list of j)remiums, and instituted a j)lowing-match ; but 

 it appears to have been rather with the design of testing the strength, 

 training, and docility of the oxen than to improve the plow. The 

 plow-maker, however, happened to be there with his eyes open, and 

 there can be no doubt that this and similar exhibitions which soon 

 followed gave a new impetus to the progress of agricultural mechan- 

 ics. Improvements in the plow had begun, even before the close 

 of the last century. A patent had been granted for a cast-iron 

 plow to Charles Newbold, of Burlington, New Jersey, in 1797, com- 

 bining the mold-board, share, and land-side, all cast together, and 

 it was regarded by intelligent plow-makers as so great an improve- 

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

 the sum of 8500 for the right to combine certain parts of Newbold's 

 plow with his own. The importance of this implement was so great 

 as to command the attention and study of scientific men, to improve 

 its form and construction, and Thomas Jefferson, in 1798, applied 

 himself to the task, and wrote a treatise upon the requisite form of the 

 mold-board, according to scientific principles, calculating the exact 

 form and size, and especially the curvature to lessen the friction. I 

 have in' my jiossession his original manuscript of this essay, contain- 

 ing his drawings and calculations. 



But these changes and improvements were not readily adopted by 

 the farming community. Their introduction was far slower than anv 



