History of the Plow. 77 



" Stepliens, of New York, applied his shoe on the bottom of the 

 kind side of the plow, and fastened with a small screw bolt pass- 

 ing through both. Shoes constructed in this manner will only 

 answer the purpose of protecting the bottom of the land side. 

 The side, however, is equally exposed, and in time will wear 

 entirely oft". To obviate this inconvenience, I make a groove or 

 countersink in the side and lower edge of the land side of my 

 plow, which forms a birth for the shoe, and admits of the thick- 

 ness, without any inconvenience, I make from its projecting out, 

 E R, Fiirs. 3 and 5 : the shoe extends round under the bottom of 

 the land side and fastens on with one or more screw bolts. 



" The improvement consists in so constructing and applying the 

 shoe that it protects both the sides and the bottom of the land 

 side. It may be made of wrought or cast iron, or steel. 



" Fifth — New mode of making, applying and using the share 

 of the plow, whether formed of wrought or cast iron: If I apply 

 the wrought iron share, I make it in the usual way by weld- 

 ing the wing on the land side (see Fig. 6), and fasten it to 

 the cast iron part of the land side with a small screw bolt, n, 

 Fig. 5. Then I fasten it to the mould-board by means of a pro- 

 jection made on the front and lower part of the mould-board, 

 with an inclination forward, forming a dovetail or hook which I 

 extend through the share. (See o, Fig. 6.) This mode will hold 

 on the share very firmly, but as it is liable, being made of cast 

 iron, to break off, in order to obviate this danger, I fasten the 

 share to the mould-board with a strong screw bolt, having the 

 head made to fit a tapering hole made in the mould-board, and 

 passing down through the wing of the share, ^j. Fig. 6, and drawn 

 up tight with a screw nut. If it be a right-handed plow, this 

 should be a left-handed screw, and if a left-hand plow, then a 

 riffht-handed screw. This is somewhat the manner in which 

 David Peacock, of New Jersey, fastened the share on his plow, 

 patented in the year 1807, but with this difference: he put tvv^o 

 screw bolts and a false coulter through the wing of his share ; 

 therefore made it stationary, and without its being made fast to 

 the cast iron part of the land side at all. But, in my mode of 

 fastening the share on, by putting a piece of wood or leather 

 between the wrought and cast iron land sides at n, Fig. 5, the 

 point of the share may be somewhat adjusted, and the bar always 

 regulated to suit the shoe of the plow. The point and edge of 

 the share is likewise of a different shape from any that have here- 



