48 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



ploughs of the home-made sort did as well, and two did 

 better ; and for their work the premiums were awarded. 

 The later records of the society indicate that the first 

 satisfactory plough originated in this country, as certainly 

 did the main idea to which the improvement of the in- 

 strument is traceable. 



While the evolution of the plough from the primitive 

 condition in which, as already described, it existed in 1792 y 

 is not attributable to any measures taken by the society, 

 there is warrant for saying that an early and prominent 

 member of the society had some share in promoting the 

 improvement witnessed during the first twenty years of the 

 present century. The story of that advance in the plough- 

 making art is so intrinsically interesting, so pertinent to 

 the general theme here under consideration, and, in proper 

 narration, is brought so closely home to the society itself, 

 that it cannot be deemed a digression briefly to repeat it. 



The " main idea " alluded to above, was given to the pub- 

 lie by Thomas Jefferson, through letters addressed by him 

 to the French Academy and to the president of the British 

 Board of Agriculture in 1798. Mr. Jefferson's thoughts 

 were first drawn to the subject in 1788. Travelling that 

 year in Lorraine, in France, he frequently alighted from 

 his carriage to watch the operation of the ploughs in use in 

 the fields, and, as a result of his observations, entered, at 

 the time, the following in his diary : 4 - The offices of a 

 mould-board are to receive the sod after the share has cut 

 under it, to raise it gradually and to reverse it. It should 

 be as wide as the furrow and of a length suited to the 

 construction of the plough.' 7 



In his letter to the president of the British Board he 

 elaborates this idea in description, and compares the action 

 of the mould- board to the movement of two wedges, so com- 

 bined as to present a curved surface. The function of one 

 wedge, he says, is to lift so much of the sod, or slice of 

 earth, as is necessary to the full height required, and the 



