62 JETHRO WOOD; 



stick of wood plated with iron." If this does 

 sound like an exaggeration, but is really a 

 plain statement of fact, consider for a moment 

 what the plow really is in its relation to civil- 

 ization. 



The savage lives by the chase and up- 

 on the bounty of untilled nature. The first 

 steps toward civilization are to domesticate an- 

 imals, and cultivate the soil with a rude kind 

 of hoe. Both are alike primitive. The next 

 step is to press the beast into service by sup- 

 plementing the hoe with a plow. In that 

 implement we see what might be called the 

 original strand in the mighty cord which binds 

 in co-operation man, brute and earth. By 

 means of this agency of agriculture the beast 

 of the field is made to toil, and purchases the 

 benefits of human kindness at the expense of 

 idleness and industry. It is not too much, then, 

 to say that the plow is at once " the tie that 

 binds," and the tap-root which nourishes the 



