EARLY HISTORY OF THE PLOW 133 



end nearly horizontal, the upper resting on the plowman's 

 shoulder, forms the share, beams and handles of the caschrom. 



The only additions of inventive genius were a sidewise 

 projecting pin for convenience in regulating the depth 

 by the foot and an iron chisel-point for the share. 



The plow up to this point was merely an instrument which 

 pulverized the soil by passing through it and disturbing it in 

 its place. Next came the conception of the plow as a wedge 

 for moving the earth and redepositing it in a broken condition. 

 Some wedges acted horizontally, lifting the earth and allowing 

 it to fall back in the furrow. Others acted laterally, pushing 

 aside the furrow slice and 

 leaving a clear space for 

 the next furrow. Plows 

 in which this crude appli- 

 cation of the single wedge 

 is found are still widely 

 used in Mexico and Spain, Ancient Mexican plow. This type stil 1 

 occasionally in France and 



Italy. They represent the only improvements in plows 

 during the long Middle Ages over the round-pointed or tri- 

 angular sticks of the ante-Christian Era. Except for the in- 

 vention of the coulter about the eleventh century no one had 



Old English plow, 1470 A. D. 



yet conceived the idea of both lifting the soil and shoving it 

 aside by a combination of horizontal and lateral wedges, though 

 in a type of French plow used in the Middle Ages a hint 

 of the modern curvature of share and moldboard is given. 



