45 2 AGRICULTURE. 



them afterwards went forth the Alpha of colonization in the 

 Great West. In the log cabin of that agricultural era were first 

 cultivated the true, though austere religion, the domestic virtues, 

 the sturdy habits of frugal industry, the daring spirit, and the 

 devoted love of liberty that have so advanced the prosperity 

 and the glory of this Western Continent. The acorns planted 

 by our fathers have become stately trees, under whose umbra- 

 geous foliage thousands of their descendants and others, whom 

 the grateful shade has invited from less favored lands, find pro- 

 tection, shelter, and repose. 



The immigrants were supplied with carts, chains, shovels, 

 hoes, and rakes, but it was some years before a plow was intro- 

 duced ; and even so late as 1637 there were but 30 plows in 

 Massachusetts. A yeoman in Salem that year made complaint 

 that "he had not sufficient ground to maintain a plow" on his 

 tract of 300 acres, and he was allowed an addition of 20 

 acres to his original grant, if he would "set up plowing." The 

 plows first used were the imported English wheel-plows, but 

 somewhat lighter although clumsy kinds were in time made by 

 the village wheelwright and blacksmith. Then came what was 

 long known as the Gary plow, with clumsy wrought-iron share, 

 wooden landside and standard, and wooden mould-board plated 

 over with sheet-iron or tin, and with short, upright handles, 

 requiring a strong man to guide it. The bar-share plow was 

 another form, still remembered by many for its rudely fitted 

 wooden mould-board and coulter, and immense friction, from the 

 rough iron bar which formed the landside. 



Massachusetts was the first among the colonies to introduce 

 the manufacture of scythes and other agricultural implements. 

 In 1646 the General Court granted to Joseph Jenckes, of Lynn, 

 a native of Hammersmith, in England, and connected with the 

 first iron works in that colony, the exclusive privilege for four- 

 teen years " to make experience of his abillityes and inventions 

 for making, among other things, of mills for the making of 

 sithes and other edge tooles." His patent "for ye more speedy 

 cutting of grass" was renewed for seven years, in May, 1655. 

 The improvement consisted in making the blade longer and 

 thinner, and in strengthening it at the same time by welding a 

 square bar of iron to the back, as in the modern scythe, thus 



