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LETTERS FROM VIRGINIA.-NO. D. 
share of wrought iron, steel-edged. He copied Mr. 
Newbold’s plow in part, for the privilege of which 
he paid him $1,000, Robert Smith, of Buckingham, 
Pennsylvania, obtained a patent for a cast-iron 
mould board, probably as early: as 1804 to ’6. This 
is said to have been constructed on mathematical 
principles, an 1 was highly approved of, Mr. Smith 
wrote a good article an the construction of plows. 
In 1814, Jethro-Wool obtained a patent for a 
plow, the mould board, landside, and share in three 
parts, and of cast iron. He was familiar with New- 
bold’s and Peacock’s plows ; of which his was a 
bungling imitation, and not near so perfect in 
form nor construction, as the old Rotherham plow, 
that ha I been in use in Great Britain, at least 
eighty-four years before. 
It is said that the cast-iron plow, in three parts, 
viz : mould board, landside, and share, was in use 
in Virginia previous to 1814, and that Wood was 
aware of it; and that, through the Encyclopaedias 
and other works, he also knew of the im¬ 
provements in Great Britain. In any event, 
it is perfectly plain that he never ought to have 
had a patent conferred upon him for the cast- 
iron share, nor for any other improvements in 
the plow. He constructed nothing original in all 
he undertook. His only merit, so far as we can 
learn, was to assist in bringing the cast-iron share 
into more general use, sooner than it might other¬ 
wise have been done.* 
Edwin A. Stevens, of Hoboken,- New Jersey, took 
up the plow, in 1817, and for nearly four years de¬ 
voted his ingenious talents to its improvement. 
He often tested it with an accurately-arranged 
dynamometer, and in various other ways, and 
against the best plows within his reach, and at 
length, succeeded in making it so perfect that it 
found great favor with the public, and has been a 
standing model for most of the best plows since 
manufactured in the United States. He informed 
us that he took his idea of a cast-iron plow from 
Mr. Newbold’s invention. 
Mr. Stevens patented his plow on the 23d of 
April, 1821, and was the first in this country to 
make use of the process of cold-chilling the base of 
the landside and lower edge of the share, which was 
also embraced in his specification for a patent. 
In 1819, Josiah Butcher, of New York, com¬ 
menced improving the cast-iron plow, and has con¬ 
tinued to do so to the present day. He lengthened 
and improved the shape of the mould board, and 
the method of fastening it to the beam : lengthened 
the share and added the shin piece; increased 
the width of the Ian [side, and improved the man¬ 
ner of fastening it to the mould board, by lapping 
it outside and lengthening it to touch the share. He 
has also considerably improved the prairie plow. 
We regret to add, that, from the imperfection of the 
7 We observe*! a few muuh* .-'nice, in a contemporary paper, a 
highly 'lauilfftory no-ice,-mi hearsay evidence, of Jethro Wood and 
his improven!- nts in the pi .tv, classing him with a Whitney and 
a Fulton ! 'I he writer of .that art'-cle only shows one thingdn his 
fulsome panegyric, and poor attempt to correct what he is pleased 
to term “ striking inconsistencies.^ “ sennas errors” and ‘‘ random 
assertions,” a id that N —extreme ignorance in regard to the plow 
and- its improvements, ho.h prior and subsequent to Jethro 
Wood’s day. We advise him to let plows alone hereafter, and stick 
to hia budding knit e. F r this advice, we.shall not charge him $100, 
nor $50. nor any other sum which he has taken good eare to linger 
whenever he did anything for the Transactions of the State Agri- 
cab urn 1 S -ciety. 
patent laws, Mr. Butcher has not met with that re¬ 
ward which he so highly merits for his great mechani¬ 
cal skill and numerous improvements in the plow. 
Mr. Davis, of the District of Columbia, Mr. 
Bergen, of Long Island, and Mr. Moore, of Ithica, 
New York, and several others, whose names we 
j have not been able to ascertain, are entitled to more 
! or less credit for their improvements in the plow. 
Mr. Joel Nouvse,. of the firm of Ruggles, Noirrse, 
and Mason, of Boston and Worcester, Massachu¬ 
setts, has done much in the construction of superior 
new plows, of many different kinds and sizes, 
and in their general improvement. The new 
dial clevis, and seif-sharpening plow, of this emi¬ 
nent agricultural-implement manufacturing firm, are 
among the most important improvements in the 
plow which have been made within this century. 
LETTERS FROM VIRGINIA.—No. 5. 
I have been spending a few days at the hospi¬ 
table mansion of Commodore Thomas Ap Catesby 
Jones, near Prospect Hill, in Fairfax county, some 
ten miles from Washington. The good old Com¬ 
modore is himself absent, having recently been as¬ 
signed to the command of the Pacific squadron, on 
the coast of South America. Previous to his de¬ 
parture, I had made his acquaintance, and heard 
from his own lips a full account of the agricultu¬ 
ral experiments on his extensive plantation, at 
Sharon, where he has resided for the last twenty 
years. As a naval commander, he ranks among 
the highest in that splendid galaxy which adorns 
our naval history. His first appearance on this 
theatre, was in .December, 1814, when Admiral 
Cochrane made his formidable attempt on New Or¬ 
leans, a few weeks previous to the famous battle 
of the 8th of January, 1815. When the fleet first 
hove in sight off’ the entrance of Lake Borgne, 
Lieut. Jones was in command of a division consist¬ 
ing of five gunboats, in the bay, with a force of 
twenty-three guns, and 183 men only. At day¬ 
light, on the morning of the 14th, the boats of the 
enemy were perceived advancing to the attack; 
and although the force opposed to him was utterly 
overwhelming, Lieut. Jones gallantly determined to 
defend his position. He accordingly made his ar¬ 
rangements to form the boats under his command 
directly across the channel, in a close line abreast; 
hut the force of the current carried his own and one 
other much in advance of their companions, and ex¬ 
posed him with but eight guns and 62 men, to the 
whole force of the enemy, consisting of between 
40 and 50 barges with forty-two guns and eight 
i hundred men. The action immediately became 
genera], and at noon the enemy was sufficiently 
near to make an attempt to board the boat of Lieut. 
Jones, which had become perilously exposed by its 
advance position. Three boats dashed at her, two 
of which were immediately sunk, and the attack 
repulsed. It was again renewed by four boats, 
which were also beaten oft’with a heavy loss. In 
repelling this last attack, however, Lieut. Jones 
was shot down, and the command devolved on a 
young midshipman (Mr. Parker), who kept up 
the defence until he was himself severely wounded 
and overpowered by numbers. “ Although the 
I loss of this division of gunboats,” says Cooper, in 
! his Naval History, “ was a serious impediment to 
