56 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



either American or English ingenuity, in this Une, 

 until a date which will be named below. The society's 

 importation was made in 1810, but no commendatory 

 report of the operation of the plough appears. At the 

 first public "ploughing match," given by the society 

 in 1817, an English plough belonging to one of the 

 members and officers of the society, John Prince of 

 Roxbury, was used in the competition, which in part, 

 of course, had to do with the skill of the ploughman 

 and driver. No superiority appeared in the plough; 

 for it may be assumed, from the well known character 

 of Mr. Prince, that he provided competent manual 

 skill. Several other 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 instrument is 

 traceable. 



While the evolution of the plough from the primi- 

 tive condition in which, as already described, it 

 existed in 1792, 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 narra- 

 tion, 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 

 public by Thomas Jefferson, through letters addressed 



