FIRST CAST-IEON PLOUGH. 27 



The Massachusetts Society held its first exhibition at Brigh- 

 ton in 1816, offered a list of premiums, and instituted a 

 ploughing-matcli ; but it appears to have been rather with the 

 design of testing the strength, training, and docility of the 

 oxen than to improve the plough. The plough-maker, however, 

 happened to be there with his eyes open, and there can be no 

 doubt that this and similar exhibitions which soon folloAved 

 gave a new imj)etus to the progress of agricultural mechanics. 



CAST-IRON USED. 



Improvements in the plough had begun, even before tlie 

 close of the last century. A patent had been granted for a 

 cast-iron plough to Charles Newbold, of Burlington, New Jer- 

 sey, in 1797, combining the mould-board, share, and land-side, 

 all cast together, and it was regarded by intelligent plough- 

 makers as so great an improvement that Peacock, in his 

 patent of 1807, paid the original inventor the sum of $500 

 for the right to combine certain parts of Newbold's plough witli 

 his own. The importance of this implement was so great as 

 to command the attention and study of scientific men to im- 

 prove its form and construction, and Thomas Jefferson, in 

 1798, applied himself to the task, and wrote a treatise upon 

 the requisite form of the mould-board, according to scientific 

 principles, calculating the exact form and size, and especially 

 the curvature to lessen the friction. I have in my possession 

 his original manuscript of this essay, containing his drawings 

 and calculations. 



But these changes and improvements were not readily 

 adopted by the farming community. Their introduction was 

 fjir slower than any new invention that promised to economize 

 labor and do better work would be at the present day. Many 

 a farmer clung to his old wooden plough, asserting that cast-iron 

 poisoned the ground and spoiled the crops. He required an 

 ocular demonstration before paying his money for an iron 

 ^plough. It was not so much the weight of the old plough as the 

 form of the mould-board, and the construction of the various 

 parts, that needed correction. Its draught was great, on 

 account of the excessive friction. The share and mould-board 

 were so attached as to make too blunt a wedge. Its action 

 was not uniform, and it was difficult to hold, requiring 



