96 Report on Trials of Plows. 



He tried the second time, but was unsuccessful in both. About 

 1821 persons in different parts of the country got up plows. 

 Among them were Mr. Tice, of Washington county, Mr. Wright, 

 of Saratoga, Mr. Chamberling, of Dutchess, and several others in 

 different parts of the Union. They all laid aside theirs and 

 adopted my improvements. I found it impossible to protect 

 myself from these encroachments. Although my plow was made 

 by all plowmakers, yet I did not consider it perfected. In 1823 

 I ascertained that my land side was not as durable as it ought to 

 be. By not extending all the way outside to the share, it left 

 part of the mould-board exposed to wear and could not be 

 renewed without getting an entire new mould-board. To remedy 

 this I extended the land side outside of the mould-board up to 

 the share. Finding that the wrought standard I then used was not 

 sufficiently strong and cheap, I, in 1823, extended the body of my 

 cast mould-board up to the beam, securing the beam to the body of 

 the plow by a wrought bolt from the centre of the land side and 

 mould-board perpendicular through the casting on which the 

 beam rested, and through the beam, securing it with nut and 

 screw. These have also been generally adopted. One more 

 improvement remained to be made. In my letter to the Secre- 

 tary of the American Institute, published in the journal of the 

 Institute in 1837, I said that the mould-board, beam and handles 

 of all the American plows were too short. I had been convinced 

 of this years before. About 1838 I adopted these alterations. 

 The plowmakers all followed suit. Owing to the imperfection 

 of the patent law I had little encouragement to patent my last 

 improvements. One clause in the patent law of 183(j, which 

 declared that a patented article must not bear sale at the time of 

 the issue of the patent, and that there must not be more than one 

 year from the date of the improvement before the patent is taken 

 out, deprived me of my rights to my improvements. 



•' My large size plow that takes a furrow seven inches deep by 

 fourteen wide, turns over six and three-quarter inches more 

 at the top edge of the mould-board than at the bottom. From 

 all that I have discovered in twenty-five years of observation and 

 experimenting, I have not found one straight line that I could 

 recommend on the running part of the ploAv. Although a plow 

 will run well in its perpendicular position if the land side is 

 straight, 3'^et it will run better if it be even one-eighth of an inch 

 concave towards the land. In no case should it be rounding:. 



