THE PLOW IN AMERICA 145 



an old hoe, thin straps of iron, or wornout horseshoes. The 

 landside was of wood, its base and sides shod with thin plates 

 of iron. The share was of wood, with a hardened steel point. 

 The coulter was tolerably well made of iron, steel edged, and 

 locked into the share nearly as it does in the improved lock 

 coulter plow of the present day. The beam was usually a 

 straight stick. The handles, like the moldboard, were split from 

 the crooked trunk of a tree, or as often cut from its branches. 

 The crooked roots of the white ash were the most favored 

 timber for plow handles in the Northern States. The beam 

 was set at any pitch that fancy might dictate, with the handles 

 fastened on at almost right angles with it, thus leaving the 

 plowman little control over his implement, which did its work 

 in a very slow and most imperfect manner." 



The Old Colony plow, as used in the Eastern States as late 

 as 1820, had a ten-foot beam and a four-foot landside. "Your 

 furrows stand up like the ribs of a lean horse in March. A 

 lazy plowman may sit on the beam and count every bout of 

 his day's work." 



The first American after Jefferson to advance a real im- 

 provement was Charles Newbold, of Burlington, N. J., who 

 made the first cast iron plow ever made in America. It was 

 cast all in one piece, share, landside, sheath (or standard), and 

 moldboard. Cast and wrought iron shares were in use before 

 Newbold 's invention, but in some way farmers developed the 

 notion that the use of cast iron poisoned the land, injured its 

 fertility, and promoted the growth of weeds, and Newbold's 

 plow was never generally adopted. As late as 1837 farmers in 

 New Hampshire clung to this idea. 



Gideon Davis, in 1818, patented a plow built on the lines 

 laid down by Jefferson. He also fastened the coulter to the 

 side of the beam instead of perforating the latter. This greatly 

 strengthened the beam as compared with the usual practice. 

 September 1, 1819, on which date Jethro Wood patented his 

 plow, has been set by some as "the natal day of the modern 



