20 



Ploughs. 



Vol. XII. 



share was of ^iron with a hardened steel 

 point. The coulter was tolerably well made 

 of iron, steel-edged, and locked into tlie 

 share nearly as it does in the in'iproved lock- 

 coulter plough of the present day. The 

 beam was usually a straight stick. The 

 handles, like the mould board, split from the 

 crooked trunk of a tree, or as often cut from 

 its branches: the crooked roots of the white 

 ash were the most favourite timber for plough 

 handles in the Northern States. Tlie beam 

 was set at any pitch that fancy might dic- 

 tate, with the handles fastened on, almost at 

 right angles with it, thus leaving the plough- 

 man little control over his implement, which 

 did its work in a very slow and most imper- 

 fect manner. 



It will be proper to give some account of 

 the improvement made in ploughs in Eng' 

 land and Scotland, before proceeding to the 

 consideration of the improvement in Ame- 

 rica. 



James Small, a Scotchman, constructed a 

 plough on true mechanical principles, and 

 was the inventor of the cast iron mould 

 board for it as early as the year 1740. He 

 was extensively engaged in the manufactory 

 of ploughs and other agricultural implements 

 in Berwickshire, Scotland, for a great num- 

 ber of years. His ploughs are still consider- 

 ed as a standard for the elements of good 

 plouiih making, notwithstanding the improve- 

 ments since his death up to the present day. 



The basis of Small's improved plough was 

 the Rotherham plough, which had been quite 

 generally adopted. His improvement con- 

 sisted in the better form of the mould board 

 and particularly in making it of cast iron. 

 His plough, rendered cheaper by the easier 

 construction and tlie greater certainty of the 

 regular form of the mould board, obtained a 

 general use in all the nortli of England and 

 in Scotland. In its turn Small's plough be- 

 came the basis of the improved Scotch plough, 

 so widely known and used now in both Eng- 

 land and Scotland. 



From the year 1740, when Small first in- 

 troduced the cast iron mould board, there 

 seems to be no evidence th^it any other part 

 of the plough was made of cast iron until 

 the year 17S5, when Robert Ransome, of 

 Ipswich, England, introduced tlie cast iron 

 share. This was an improvetnent of vast 

 importance and was soon ibllowed by others. 

 From the facility and economy with which 

 parts requiring nicety and uniformity in their 

 form can be made and multiplied to any e.x- 

 tent when cast, cast iron superseded wrought 

 iron wholly in the plough. 



The next improvement in the cast iron 

 parts following Ransome's cast iron share, 

 was made by a plain farmer in Suffolk coun- 



ty, England. It consisted in making the 

 bottom of the land side of cast iron. This 

 was immediately fallowed by making the 

 whole of the land side of cast iron, and soon 

 after the first introduction of the cast iron 

 share, ploughs were produced of cast iron 

 in all parts of their bodies. 



Thus about the year 1790 the plough in 

 Eni^land was perfected to the point, that it 

 was made entirely, in its body, of cast iron. 



A single improvement yet remained to be 

 effected, viz: a greater hardness in the 

 share; and this was made by Robert Ran- 

 .some, who in 1803 took out a patent for case 

 hardening, or what we term, chilling the 

 points and edges of the share. When in 

 England, in 1841, I became acquainted with 

 his son and successor in business, Mr. Allen 

 Ransome, in whose admirable work on 

 ploughs and agricultural implements, the 

 curious reader will find full particulars in 

 regard to this interesting subject. 



It will thus be seen that the cast iron 

 plouoh is wholly an English invention. 



The first person in America, of whom I 

 find any record as having taken up the 

 plough with a view of its scientific improve- 

 ment, was Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, 

 late President of the United States. He 

 invented a new mould board, an account of 

 which he first gave to the French Institute; 

 but more minutely describes it in a letter to 

 Sir John Sinclair, in 1798. Having never 

 seen this plough of Mr. Jefferson, I am un- 

 able to give any opinion as to its merits; but 

 understand, indirectly, that it was a great 

 improvement upon those generally then in 

 use in Virginia and further south. 



We now come to a very important im- 

 provement in the material and manufacture 

 of ploughs in America, which so cheapened 

 their construction, that those for one horse, 

 strong and well made, after the most im- 

 proved patterns, can now be had in New 

 York at $;2 to -$4 each, and a two-horse 

 plough from 1*5 to $7; thus placing this 

 most useful of all agricultural implements, 

 withm the means of every farmer, however 

 limited they may be. If the farmers are 

 not furnished with good ploughs now, the 

 fault is their own entirely. 



The important improvement which I al- 

 lude to, is, the cast iron plough complete, 

 which asnear as I can ascertain, was made 

 about the year 1790, by Mr. Newbold,* an 



* This, we apprehend, was Charles Neubold, of 

 Springtield, in Burlington county, an ingenious man, 

 who gave much time to the improvement of ilie plough, 

 and died within a few years up the North River. 



We well remember the barbarous wooden mould 

 board of our boyhood, with pieces of iron hoop nailed 



