36 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



on his own land with much success ; but, financially, his enter- 

 prise was a failure. The farmers were opposed to " new-fangled 

 notions " and contended that the use of cast iron " poisoned the 

 land, injured its fertility, and promoted the growth of weeds." 

 Finally the point of the plow was broken off. It was never repaired, 

 and the plow is now in the Museum of the New York State 

 Agricultural Society at Albany, New York. 1 Eventually, however, 

 the prejudice against cast-iron plows was overcome. Better patterns 

 were devised. They were adopted by the people, and so late as 

 the year 1850, according to the census statistician for agriculture, 

 "the old cast-iron plows were in general use. Grass was mowed 

 with the scythe, and grain was cut with the sickle or cradle and 

 thrashed with the flail." 2 



The prototype of the modern grain reaper had indeed appeared 

 prior to 1850. 3 A similar statement might, doubtless, be made 

 concerning certain other inventions for which patents had been 

 issued ; but all of these, like the submarine boat and the flying 

 machine of the present day, were in too imperfect a state, too 

 complex, or too expensive to meet the demands of the time. 

 Whitney's cotton gin and Newbold's cast-iron plow may there- 

 fore be accepted as the only ones of the great inventions which, 

 up to 1850, had become thoroughly incorporated into the agri- 

 cultural industry of this country. 



Just how soon after 1850 the various other labor-saving ma- 

 chines became essential factors in the business of farm work 

 it would be impossible to tell. Reaping machines were fairly well 

 developed ; but the complexity of the machines and the ignorance 

 of the farmers were serious hindrances to their general use. 4 It 



1 N. Y. Agr. Report, 1867, pp. 446, 448. 



2 Twelfth Census, Agriculture, Vol. I, p. xxix. 



3 Obed Hussey's machine was patented in 1S33 > C. W. McCormick's, in 1S34 

 (Eighth Census, Agriculture, p. xxi). 



4 I use for reaping only the scythe and cradle. . . . Perhaps a still greater 

 benefit may be found in the substitution of reaping machines, which, even now, 

 are used by most of the good farmers of my neighborhood. But because of their 

 great liability to get out of order, the difficulties of working them, and especially 

 my own ignorance of machinery, I have feared to attempt the use of reaping 

 machines. Letter of Edmund Ruffin, a Virginia farmer, from Patent Office 

 Reports, 1850-1851, p. 104 



