34 Report on Trials of Plows. 



to reverse it. The fore end of it should therefore be horizontal, 

 to enter under the sod, and the hind end perpendicular, to throw 

 it over; the intermediate surface changing gradually from the 

 horizontal to the perpendicular. It should be as wide as the fur- 

 row, and of a length suited to the construction of the plow." 

 He then gives diagrams and descriptions, which have already been 

 described in detail. The entries in the journal show that the 

 whole plan was at that time clearly developed in his mind. 



When he resided in Philadelphia, as Secretary of State under 

 General Washington, he consulted the celebrated David Ritten- 

 house as to whether his proposed plow was founded on mathe- 

 matical principles, and Mr. Rittenhouse, after a careful examination 

 of the whole question, made that fact demonstrable. 



In 1793 Mr. Jeiferson, as we are informed by Mr. Randall, put 

 his theory to the test of practical experiment. He had several 

 plows made after his patterns, and put into use on his estates, in 

 Albemarle and Bedford counties, in Virginia, and became fully 

 satisfied of their practical utility. 



Mr. Strickland, a member of the English board of agriculture, 

 travelled in this country and saw these plows in operation. Being 

 much pleased with their operation, he took home drawings of 

 them, which he submitted to his associates in the board. They 

 were so highly approved that Jefi'erson was elected as an honorary 

 member of the board, and was requested by Sir John Sinclair, its 

 president, to forward a model and a full description of his inven- 

 tion. Mr. Jefterson complied with his request, and the letter to 

 Sir John was printed in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, from which 

 we have compiled the preceding account of his invention. 



The originality of Mr. Jeflerson's discovery Avas contested by 

 William Amos, in a communication published in 1808, hut he gives 

 no proofs of it, and Mr. Jefferson certainly was not foolish enough 

 to present his method as original to two learned societies, who had 

 the means of at once detecting the imposture. The fact that 

 these bodies, the French Academy and tlie English Board of 

 Agriculture, acknowledged the invention to be his own, must 

 forever set the question at rest. 



The discovery has also been claimed for James Small, but Sir 

 John Sinclair distinctly states that Small perfected his plow 

 gradually and experimentally, and without the assistance of the 

 key which Mr. Jefferson's princijjle would have given him. His im- 



