100 Report on Trials of Plows. 



a staple and two screw nuts; the adjusting of the beam on the 

 top of the neck of the mould-board and fastening it with one end 

 of the brace or screw bolt, both coming from the hind part and 

 through the neck of the mould-board, with one screw, and raising 

 and lowering the beam at the handle. 



FifUi — In the shape of the sword and front edge of the 

 coulter and the method of fastening with the stirrup. 



Fig. 1. A — Beam bolt. Fig. 2. A — Self sharpening point. 



B — Fastening by a staple. B — Share 



C — Mould-board. C — Shoe or fender. 



D— Share. D— :Mould-board. 



E — Adjusting screw brace. E — Beam bolt, hooked at lower 



end. 

 F — Fastening by a staple . 



CHAPTER y. 



HISTORY OF AMERICAN PLOWS— Continued. 



Mr. John Mears was born in 1795, and was brought up as a 

 plovvmaker. In 1831 he became acquainted with David Prouty, 

 a practical farmer and country trader, with a mechanical turn of 

 mind, Mr. Prouty called his attention to the Hitchcock plows, 

 with which he had not previously been familiar. Finding them 

 much better than any they had ever seen, David Prouty, his son 

 Lorenzo and John Mears, formed a partnership for the purpose 

 of making and selling these plows. They sold seven sizes of 

 these, and at once found a very large demand for them. 



Mr. Mears had a very active mind, and applied himself assidu- 

 ously to the study of the plow. He had not long been engaged 

 in this line of observation before he perceived the irregularity 

 of motion which w^as produced by the oblique insertion of the 

 beam, and he was not Ion"; in reasoniuij out the centre drauoht 

 principle which we have described in the chapter on " The Line 

 of Draught in Plows," Chapter VIII. This has been one of the 

 most important improvements made by American inventors of the 

 plow, and is now almost universally adopted by all plowmakers. 



Their mould-board was formed by cutting a strip of sole leather 

 to the width of the proposed furroW; one end of it was nailed to 



