No. 216.] 199 



BUTCHER'S PRAIRIE PLOUGH. 



New-York, March, 20, 1848. 

 T. B. Wakeman, Esq., 



Corres. Sec, of American Institute. 

 Dear Sir — In my former communication to you, I did not mention 

 my prairie plow, and my time being so much occupied in my daily 

 avocations, have not been able to do anything like justice to the sub- 

 ject, yet I will make a few remarks to show how entirely the plow 

 has occupied my time and attention. 



As early as the year 1834, I was earnestly solicited by quite a 

 number of persons who had been west and seen the prairies, to make 

 a plow adapted to the breaking up of the peculiar stiff matted sward 

 of the prairie; at that time I had not seen a prairie, and could not 

 form any idea of a definite character of what was required; but with 

 such limited information as I could obtain from the descriptions giv- 

 en me by those who had seen the plows and work to be performed, 

 in 1836 I made a plow adapted to this purpose, differing entirely 

 from anything that I had seen or heard of; I went to Alton, III., and 

 there I found people ready to aid me in trying my plow; a compa- 

 ny of gentlemen of this place accompanied me five miles to a prai- 

 rie to test it, the following is the certificate of the committee who 

 witnessed its performance. 



CERTIFICATE. 



" We had the pleasure of witnessing a trial of Mr. Josiah Butch- 

 er's newly invented prairie plow, on the farm of Mr. George Foster 

 near Monticello, and take great pleasure in stating to the public 

 that the performance far exceeded that of any plow we have ever 

 seen in use. 



The inventor in our judgment, has fortunately united in his model 

 strength, durability and simplicity of structure, and at the same 

 time, the plow is lighter and requires less strength to control it, than 



