300 



JVewbold's Plough — TTie Farmers' Club. 



Vol. XII. 



animal at a lower rate to the consumer in 

 the country; so that both the rich population 

 of towns are benefited, and the poor of the 

 districts where the animals are killed are 

 very much benefited. 



Is there not a demand in large towns for 

 picked joints] — There frequently is; and I 

 know, from the inquiries I made in York- 

 shire for the Direct Northern Railway, that 

 the butchers are contemplating, when that 

 railroad communication shall be worked out, 

 to send the surplus of their better joints to 

 the London market, which will enable them 

 to sell the inferior parts to the working 

 classes at a lower price. 



In short, quick conveyances enables them 

 to dispose of the whole animal in the best 

 market? — Yes. 



By the former mode of conveyance there 

 was no possibility of carrying killed meat 

 any great distance? — It was quite impossi- 

 h\e. There is another great advantage in 

 killing the animal in the country districts; 

 the offal or inward parts of the animal are 

 available to the working classes of the dis- 

 trict, and there is an immense quantity 

 available for manure, which when brought 

 to those large towns is a nuisance, in the 

 country it is of great value. 



Have you anything to add in explanation 

 upon the points upon which you have now 

 been examined? — I have several tables to 

 give in illustrating the different points upon 

 which I have been examined. I have no 

 doubt that railroads will do more for commu- 

 nicating intelligence amongst the general 

 community than even the press has done, 

 inasmuch as seeing a thing is much more 

 than hearing of a thing, and there will be 

 much greater progress made in the diffusion 

 of improvement by railroads than by any 

 other means. — British Farmers^ Masazine. 



Newbold's Plough— The Farmers' Club, 

 N. Y., Fourth mo. 18th, 1848. 



Mu. Meigs introduced to the Club Na- 

 thaniel Sands, an aged gentleman, who de- 

 sired to speak of the first cast-iron plough 

 and Charles Newbold, its inventor. Mr. 

 Sands said that he and many other citizens, 

 who are now seventy and eighty years of 

 age, remembered Charles Newbold, a man 

 of excellent character, who some fifty years 

 ago became enthusiastically devoted to the 

 project of an iron plough. He had contrived 

 to cast the plough with such a form as then 

 was unknown for excellence. He obtained 

 a patent which was exhibited to tlie Club, 

 dated June 26th, 1797; but he had invented 

 it as far back as 1790. Newbold spent seve- 

 ral years and an estate of about ^20,000, in 



the attempt to introduce his cast-iron plough. 

 Mr. Sands had never heard it doubted that 

 Newbold was the first man who invented the 

 cast-iron plough. Before his time, the hog 

 plough was used — so called because of its 

 very irregular movement in and out of the 

 ground, like the rooting of a hog. 



Newbold's plough was at first liable to 

 break, and the blacksmiths were loath to 

 mend it. The mould board and land slide 

 were cast whole. Mr. Sands paid $10 a 

 piece for two of Newbold's ploughs, and 

 used them in Orange county, and then con- 

 sidered them to be the very best plough he 

 had ever handled. Mr. Sands said that this 

 cast-iron Newbold plough was the very ba- 

 sis of all the cast-iron ploughs since made ; 

 that it was an excellent model, and all the 

 improvements since made were based upon 

 it; that Wood's patent was for «n im- 

 provement in the plan of attaching the 

 share. Newbold at last added a steel edged 

 share to his cast-iron mould board and land 

 side. Thomas Jefferson tried Newbold's 

 plough at Washington — approved of it and 

 set himself to inventing a scientific mould 

 board. 



Mr. Meigs thought that, although the na- 

 tion might object to the long continued mo- 

 nopolies of patents, yet that in every case of 

 distinguished benefit conferred by any inge- 

 nious citizen upon his country, it was a duty, 

 and one which would prove to be profitable 

 to the nation, to mark that worthy citizen by 

 a suitable present. 



Mr. Wakeman moved that a committee of 

 three be appointed to examine the claim of 

 Mr. Newbold. 



The Chairman appointed Charles Henry 



Hall, Judge Van Wyck, and Josiah Dutcher. 



Dr. Underbill asked as to the model of 



Jethro Wood — how far it approached the 



Newbold plough? 



Mr. Sands — After many trials, Mr. Wood 

 had to return nearly to Newbold's model. 



Dr. Underbill — It seems to me that some- 

 thing ought to be done for the widow and 

 daughter of the unfortunate, but ingenious 

 Newbold. Certain it is, that there has never 

 been produced in the world so important an 

 instrument as the plough of iron. The sav- 

 ing of labour and the amount of produce 

 from the iron plough, are beyond all calcula- 

 tion in dollars, for the last thirty years. — 

 Farmer and Mechanic. 



The Southern Planter gives the follow- 

 ing simple remedy for destroying lice upon 

 cabbages: 



"Cover tlie leaves infested with the lice 

 with a handful of dry earth." 



