66 Report on Trials of Plows. 



States, The beam was set at any pitch that fancy might dictate, 

 with the handles fastened on ahnost at right angles with it, thus 

 leaving the plowman little control over his implement, which did 

 its work in a very slow and most imperfect manner." 



It is curious, as well as humiliating, to see how little advance 

 had been made in the fabrication of an implement which lies con- 

 fessedly at the root of all human ciTilization. As we have seen, 

 the original plow was a forked stick, with natural crooks which 

 adapted it to the purpose ; and after a lapse of three thousand 

 years, the same idea as stated by Mr. Allen was still uppermost 

 in the minds of plow-makers, the last differing mainly from the 

 first in being protected from wear l)y nailing on old hoes, horse 

 shoes, etc. 



It is, however, instructive and interesting to observe that there 

 was, after all, a certain blind instinct in the American farmers' 

 minds which led them somewhat in the right direction. They 

 invariably selected trees for mould-boards which had been acci- 

 dentally twisted in their early growth, and thus, without knowing 

 or suspecting it, they were approximating to a helicordal curved 

 surfiice. 



The first American who set himself to work to improve the 

 plows in common use, after Mr. Jefferson, was a farmer by the 

 name of Newbold, residing in Burlington, N. J,, who made the 

 first cast iron plow ever made in America. He used it successfully 

 himself, but so great was the antipathy to new-fangled notions 

 that no one would imitate his example, and very few would even 

 try his implement. 



As this plow was the first that was made of cast iron in this 

 country, and thus inaugurated a new era in the history of the 

 implement, it is from this circumstance invested with so much 

 interest that we give his specification in full, viz, : 



" The subscriber, Charles Newbold, of Burlingtou county and the State of New 

 Jersey, has invented an improvement in the art of plough making, as follows, viz.: 

 The plough to be (excepting the handles and beam) of solid cast iron, consisting 

 of a bar, sheath and mould plate. The sheath serves a double purpose of coulter 

 and sheath, and the mould plate serves for share and mould board, that is, to cut 

 and turn the furrow ! 



*' The forms to be varied, retaining the same general principles, to meet the 

 various uses, as well as inclinations, of those who use them. 



"Philadelphia, 17th June, 1797- 



"CHARLES NEWBOLD. 



" Uriah Tracy, ( ^'^^^^-'sses present at the signing." 



