54 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



ploughs is that they do not perform their work well, and 

 that the expense for blacksmith's work in repairs is enor- 

 mous; six ploughs cost me last year an average of 16 each 

 for repairs." 



To return to the record of the society : In 1819 the fol- 

 lowing letter was addressed to its corresponding secretary, 

 and, with its enclosure, was published in the next issue of 

 the Journal : 



BOSTON, September 1, 1819. 



I received, early in the spring of this year, from Isaac 

 Bronson, Esq., of New York, a plough denominated by him, 

 u Freeborn's patent plough." Having found, upon trial, 

 that it fulfilled all the expectations Mr. Bronson had pre- 

 viously raised concerning it, I requested him to write an 

 account of its character and success. His letter is enclosed, 

 which you are at liberty to publish should it be deemed 

 useful. 



Concerning its superiority I have had the opinion of 

 every practical farmer who has witnessed its operation, I 

 believe, without an exception. The effect upon my farm is 

 this : that I now break up, with ease, the same quantity 

 and qualities of land, say one acre, in a day, with one yoke 

 of oxen and one man, who both holds and drives, which was 

 never before, to my knowledge, broken up with less than 

 two yoke of oxen and two men. My ploughmen agree that 

 it takes one-third less power to do the same work, than 

 common ploughs require. One of them, to express his ap- 

 probation of it, said, " that poor as he was, if another such 

 plough could not be bought he would give $100, rather 

 than not have it, had he a farm of his own." It is the best 

 plough, beyond all question, I have ever had upon my farm. 

 Respectfully, I am your obedient servant, 



JOSIAH QUINCY. 



In the list, from which names of New York inventors 

 above mentioned are taken, that of Freeborn does not 

 appear. Some of these inventors sold to other persons 

 rights to manufacture, and Freeborn may have been a 

 purchaser and not an inventor. But that his plough was 

 constructed on " Jeffersonian principles/' appears clearly 

 enough in an expression used in the letter enclosed, 

 viz.: "The plough passes through the ground with 



