TO JETHRO WOOD 



" The American plow, during the colonial 

 period, was of wood, the mold-board being 

 covered with sheet-iron, or plates made by 

 hammering out old horseshoes. Jefferson 

 studied and wrote on the subject, to determine 

 the proper shape of the mold-board. He 

 treated it as consisting of a lifting and an up- 

 setting wedge, with an easy connecting curve. 

 Newbold, of New Jersey, in 1797, patented 

 a plow with a mold-board, share and land side 

 all cast together. Peaccok, in his patent of 

 1807, cast his plow in three pieces, the point 

 of the colter entering a notch in the breast of 

 the share." 



It will be observed that the credit given 

 these improvers of the plow is very considera- 

 ble, without at all trenching upon the excep- 

 tional credit due to Jethro Wood. With 

 such an authoritative refutation, the slander 

 may well be dismissed as beneath further 

 notice. 



