PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 239 



the shape of the plow was, as I said, sometimes a horizontal 

 wedije and sometimes a vertical wedije, but still no indica- 

 tion of any idea of combining the two wedges in anything 

 like a twist form. 



Then about the fifteenth century we find later illustrations 

 of the plow, when something like a mould-board first 

 appears, protected with strips of iron or brass and a metal- 

 lic point, the pieces of metal attached to the wood simply 

 to preserve it from wearing so rapidly. At this time, in the 

 fifteenth century, is the first we see of anything of the 

 mould-board character that would turn a furrow at all, or 

 that would give width to the furrow. Several forms of mould- 

 board then appeared, one of which is of a diamond shape, 

 with one of the acute angles pointed downward, shod with 

 iron, the sides turning upward ; and the earth by this means 

 was raised from the ground, on the principle of the wedge, 

 carried upward and separated on either side of the standard. 

 Then, as the plow moved along, the earth was thrown back, 

 separated l)y the standard and dropped over the back part of 

 this mould-board, pulverizing it by this process better than 

 any plow had done before that time, and dropping it in the 

 same furrow from which it was removed. Another mould- 

 board appears about the same time which has the idea of a 

 double wedge, and it carried the earth well to the right, 

 leaving the passage clear for the next furrow. There are 

 plows now in the museum of the New York State Agricul- 

 tural Society in Albany that answer perfectly the descrip- 

 tion of the plow of the year 1100 and the year 1500, as we 

 have them recorded in the old manuscripts of Great Britain ; 

 and there are plows there that came from the south of 

 France, Greece and Albania, that are believed to be, and no 

 doubt are, from three to four hundred years old, and which 

 answer this description perfectly ; and duplicates of those 

 plows can be found still in use in parts of Spain, France 

 and Italy. 



The next step in the progress of the plow was within one 

 hundred years of the present time, in the time of Tull and 

 Sinclair, although Tull can hardly be set down as one of 

 the persons to whom we arc indebted for the advance of the 

 plow. There was a plow lliat came into England from Hoi- 



