88 Report on Trials of Plows. 



or lowered, and tho mould-board, with its cutting edge, enabled 

 to make a furrow of greater or smaller depth, as the plowman 

 may desire ; and a latch and key fixed to the beam, and capable 

 of being turned into notches and grooves or depressions on one 

 edge or narrow side of the standard, serves to keep the beam 

 from settling or descending. By means of the screw-bolts, wedges, 

 catches and keys, with their appropriate notches, teeth and joggles, 

 the plow may be deepened or shallowed most exactly. 



Third Specification — Claims the share. 



Fourth Specification — Claims securing the handles to the mould 

 board and land side of the plow by means of notches, ears, loops 

 or holders, cast with the land side and mould-board respectively, 

 and serving to receive and contain the handles without the use of 

 nuts and screws. 



Fifth Specification — Claims an improvement in the method of 

 adjusting the cast iron land side to the cast iron mould-board. 

 Their junction is after the manner of tenon and mortise— are 

 joggled or dovetailed together in the casting operation — so as 

 to make them hold fast. The fore end of the tenon is addition- 

 ally secured by a cast projection from the inside of the mould- 

 board, formed for its reception, and if any other tightening should 

 be requisite, a wooden wedge well driven in will bind every part 

 efiectually without the assistance of screws. 



Finally — He claims the right of varying the dimensions and 

 proportions of his plow, and of its several sections and parts. A 

 disclaimer of certain portions of these claims was entered Feb- 

 ruary 24th, 1838, and another disclaimer of certain other parts 

 Avas entered on the 26th of May, 1838. 



There can be no doubt that this plow became very popular 

 among farmers, and did more to drive out the wretched and 

 clumsy plows of the olden time than any other which had then 

 been invented. As late as the year 1820, a writer in the Ehodc 

 Island American says that, in most parts of Massachusetts, the 

 Old Colony plow, with ten-foot beam and four-foot land side, 

 were still in use; and the Sutton plows, which he says " are not 

 fit to plow any land that has sod on it; your furrows stand u[) 

 like the ribs of a lean horse in the month of March. A lazy 

 plowman may sit on the beam and count every bout of his day's 

 work. Besides, the great objection to all these plows is that they 

 do not perform the work well, and that the expense is enormous for 

 lacksmith work. Six of these plows cost me, on an average, last 



