ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 9 



broker of Newburyport had imported a flock of ninety. 

 The Essex Merino Sheep Company was organized. It 

 imported largely, rented farms in various parts of the 

 County, and placed the flocks under the care of shepherds 

 brought from Spain. Many farmers disposed of their 

 native flocks and invested in the new breed. But the 

 foot-rot and scab appeared and made sad ravages. The 

 agents of the company proved incompetent and some- 

 times dishonest. The company became bankrupt, the 

 flocks were scattered. Choice rams or ewes that had 

 cost a thousand or fourteen hundred dollars had died or 

 were sold for a trifle. Many farmers lost heavily and 

 the Merino mania became a by-word for wild and ruinous 

 speculation. 



The common farmers were plodding along in the ways 

 of their fathers. Their tools were clumsy and inefficient, 

 largely home made or hammered out by the neighboring 

 blacksmith. The sheet-iron shovel was patented in 1819 

 and the shovel of cast steel in 1828. The first American 

 patent for improvement in hoes was registered in 1819, 

 and the cast steel hoe appeared in 1827. The light and 

 efficient steel spring pitchfork was invented by Charles 

 Goodyear in 1831. Samples of the old tools that have 

 been preserved are of burdensome weight and easily 

 bent, as they were made of soft iron. 



The old plough, with its wooden mould board covered 

 with thin strips of iron, with an iron coulter, was still 

 in vogue. It was often home made and so ill contrived 

 that three or four yoke of oxen were required in breaking 

 up heavy ground. The iron plough had been invented 

 many years before, but found little favor. As late as 

 1835, it is said. Sir Robert Peel presented two iron 

 ploughs of the best construction to a famous club in 

 England. On his next visit the old wooden ploughs were 

 still in use. "Sir," said a member, "we tried the iron 

 and be all of one mind that they made the weeds grow." 

 Charles Newbold of New Jersey took out a patent for 



