THE PLOW IN AMERICA 149 



to the landside, this exactly balancing the resistance on either 

 side of the line of draft. The study of the line of draft by 

 these men and others who followed resulted in plows of lighter 

 draft and easier guidance. 



Daniel Webster, in 1836, planned and constructed a plow 

 which had little bearing on the development of plows for farm 

 use, but illustrated the possibilities of a single plow bottom 



Daniel Webster's plow 



in the way of deep tillage. It was 12 feet long, with a 15- 

 inch share, and a moldboard 4 feet long by 28 inches high. 

 The furrow was 12 to 14 inches deep and nearly two feet 

 wide, the moldboard having a spread of 18 inches at the 

 heel and 27 inches at the tip of the wing. It had an iron 

 share and landside forged together, a wooden beam and 

 handles, and a wooden moldboard plated with straps of iron. 

 Webster made the moldboard along Jefferson's lines with 

 certain modifications such as greater relative length and 

 overhang. He believed in deep plowing, and the success of 

 his plow in a brush-covered pasture may be told in his own 

 words: "When I have hold of the handles of my big plow in 

 such a field as this, with four yokes of oxen to pull it through, 

 and hear the roots crack and see the stumps all go under the 

 furrow, out of sight, and observe the clean, mellowed surface 

 of the plowed land, I feel more enthusiasm over my achieve- 

 ment than comes from my encounters in public life in 

 Washington." 



In 1852 Samuel A. Knox patented a method of forming a 



