INVENTOR OF THE MODERN PLOW. 65 



small trees and broken limbs, needing no 

 mechanical skill in fashioning, to render them 

 serviceable for such crude uses. They may 

 be termed nature's contribution to the art of 

 plow-making. 



Without going further into details, it 

 may be stated that a standard authority 

 on the history of mechanism asserts that 

 "the ancient Egyptian, Etruscan, Syrian, 

 and Greek plows, were equal to the modern 

 plows of the south of France, part of Austria, 

 Poland, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, Persia, 

 Arabia, India, Ceylon and China) ; at least 

 such was the case until the middle of the pres- 

 ent century." The Roman and Gallic plows 

 were better than those of the modern countries 

 named. The Gauls had mould-board plows. 

 Pliny is our authority for this statement. That 

 eminent Latin author of eighteen centuries 

 ago, in speaking on the general subject, says: 



"Plows are of various kinds. The colter is 



