The Cast Iron Plow. 137 
— the stalks cut down, the pots removed to the potting bed, or a 
place where they are dry or protected against frost, there to re- 
main until the appropriate season for recommencing operations. 
In this state of rest, the bulbs should not be taken out of the pots, 
but it is well to examine them once a month, and if very dry, give 
thera a careful watering. Of the ultimate hardiness and adaption 
of the Japan Lilies and their offspring to our gardens, I intend to 
satisfy myself, by experiments, the ensuing year. 
THE CAST IRON PLOW. 
A bill has recently passed the senate of the United States, and 
is now pending in the House of Representatives, to extend the pa- 
tent of Jethro Wood for seven years, which he obtained in 1814, 
and renewed in 1819, claiming to have invented the Cast Iron 
Plow-share, &c. This bill proposes to grant the heirs of Jethro 
Wood, the privilege of exacting fifty cents from the manufactur- 
er for every Cast Iron Plow made in the United States, for sever- 
al years after the passage of said bill. 
As there are about four millions of farmers and planters at pre- 
sent in the United States, and as each would require on an aver- 
age at least one plow every four years, this privilege would be 
■worth half a million of dollars annually, all of which would be 
taken from the hard earnings of the planter and farmer I And 
what makes the matter more unjust is, that the interest of the heirs 
of Wood in this patent have been purchased for a mere song; 
thus nearly the whole benefit of it will inure to a company of 
greedy speculators. 
But Jethro W^ood, as I shall proceed to show, was not the ori- 
ginal inventor of the Cast Iron Plow-share, nor did he ever im- 
prove the plow in the slightest degree; he was certainly entitled 
to no merit in this thing, and much less to a patent; and had the 
facts of the case been known by the Commissioner of Patents, 
in 1814, he would not have granted him one, or renewed it in 
1819; neither would the United States Court have confirmed him 
in it after it had been granted. 
The Cast Iron Plow-share was invented by Robert Ransom of 
Ipswich, England, and he obtained a patent for it in 1785, twenty- 
nine years before Jethro Wood obtained his! The Cast Iron Plow 
with the share and mold-board in two parts, was kept for sale by 
Peter T. Curtenius, in this city, as early as 1800; and in use in 
this neighborhood. Jethro Wood undoubtedly obtained his 
knowledge of the Cast Iron share, from one or the other of these; 
for the Cast Iron Plow as a whole, and in separate parts, will be 
