66 JETHRO WOOD; 



the iron part which cuts the thick sod before 

 it is broken into pieces and traces beforehand 

 by its incision the future furrows, which the 

 share, reversed, is to open with its teeth. 

 Another kind, the common plowshare, is 

 nothing more than a lever furnished with a 

 pointed beak ; while another variety, which is 

 used in light, easy soils, does not present an 

 edge projecting from the share-beam through- 

 out, but only a small point at the extremity, 

 In a fourth kind, again, this point is larger 

 and formed with a cutting edge by the agency 

 of which it cleaves the ground, and by the 

 sharp edges at the side cuts up the weeds by 

 the roots." 



Pliny adds that the broader the plowshare 

 the better it is for turning up the soil. These 

 excerpts from the great Roman may serve to 

 show the utmost reach of invention in that 

 line, until a new impulse, begun in the Nether- 

 lands in the eighteenth century, was brought 



