INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 59 



the letter from Thomas Jefferson to Jethro 

 Wood, in the archives of the House, where 

 they could only be withdrawn on the mo- 

 tion of some member. They did so, and left 

 them for some years uncalled for. When at 

 last they applied for them they could not be 

 found. Nor from that time to the present has 

 any trace of them been discovered by any of 

 the family. Thus perished the last vestige of 

 proof relating to this ill-fated invention." 



This is a fair and candid statement, one 

 fully sustained by unimpeachable documentary 

 evidence. Especially by the somewhat volu- 

 minous pamphlet entitled " Documents relat- 

 ing to the improvements of Jethro Wood in 

 the Construction of the Plough." A careful 

 examination of the testimony therein embodied, 

 and of the Congressional Reports on the sub- 

 ject, warrant the foregoing statements. 



It is not strange that in an early annual 

 report of the United States Commissioner of 



