American Agriculturist 
THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS THE FARM NEWS 
Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man.”— Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat, Off. Established 1842 
ume 113 
For the Week Ending February 9, 1924 
Number 6 
Honor of the Plow and the Plowman 
Civilization and the Development of “The Crooked Stick 
99 
INCE the time of the earliest records, the 
plow has been the right hand partner of 
civilization. The pen may not be mightier 
than the sword, but the plow is. To eat, 
has always had to till the soil and the plow 
ie fundamental tillage machine. That the 
’s importance was recognized by the ancients 
oven by the large number of times it was 
tured on their monuments, 
e first plow was not even “ an iron on a stick.” 
s only a stick, shaped like a hoe and used to 
trate and loosen the soil, as it was drawn 
It was drawn, too, in early times, not by 
al power, but by man, and more frequently 
by woman. There are still places in the 
1 where these primitive plows are in use 
where -woman is used as ^the beast of burden 
I ill them. 
it the ancients early learned the need of put- 
iron on the stick, for as early as 1100 B. C., 
Israelites who knew not the art of working 
By E. R. EASTMAN 
Editor of “American Agriculturist* 
Jethro Wood must go the credit of giving the 
a generation, the traders and trappers followed 
their lonely trade from Hudson Bay southward 
present modern shape to the American plow. He 
worked out a moldboard with a proper curvature 
to turn the furrow and distribute it evenly. With 
the usual success of inventors, Wood received 
and southwestward to the Rockies, but they made nothing for his invention, and died in poverty. 
HZ** 
first iron plow, patented by Charles Newbold, of 
New Jersey, in 1797 
t went down to the Philistines “to sharpen 
man his share and his coulter.” Virgil 
Bribes the Roman plow as being made of “two 
is of wood meeting at an acute angle and 
;d with iron.” All through the Middle Ages 
I! improvement was made over this old Roman 
I as described by Virgil. 
I ter the Middle Ages the Dutch found that the 
lan plow would not work in their soil, and out 
I eir necessity, they evolved the first fundamen- 
deas of our modern plow, with its curved 
Iboard, with its beam, and with its two 
lies. This Dutch plow was imported into 
B and about 1730. 
llowing this time, an Englishman by the 
e of P. P. Howard took the Dutch plow, added 
ral improvements, and erected 
)w factory, which remains to this 
James Small, of Scotland, was 
her man who advanced civiliza- 
by designing a plow that would 
'n the furrows more smoothly and 
with little draft.” Robert Ran- 
another Englishman, con- 
-ted a plow in 1785 with a share 
e of cast-iron. In 1803, Ransome 
eeded in chilling his plows, mak- 
them hard and very durable, 
he old Dutch plow with the iin- 
r ements of Howard, Small and 
some came with the first Colo- 
5 and wrote itself largely in the 
pry of the new world. Of all the 
i e men’s weapons, the Indian 
ded the plow the most. It was 
“biggest medicine of all.” For 
no impression on the wild life or on the great 
wilderness, and the Indian’s hunting grounds were 
practically untouched. But when the settler, the 
farmer if you please, came with his covered wagon, 
with his inevitable plow strapped on behind, then 
things began to change, and change rapidly. Then, 
and not until then, the Indian saw 7 the beginning 
of the end of things for him. 
That old “iron on the stick” of the early settlers 
was not much of a plow to brag about either. I 
hate to think of the strain on the early Puritan’s 
temper as he wrestled with it on the stony New 
England hillsides while he tried to avoid swearing; 
and later many and long were the struggles of the 
emigrant with the prairie soils of the Central West 
when he tried to conquer them with the plow 
brought from the East and found that it would 
not work at all on the tough prairie sods. 
But all the same, with these rude plows, these 
early American farmers pushed the forests farther 
and farther toward the western horizon. With 
them, they saved themselves and their families 
from starving, and with them they turned a savage 
land into a smiling landscape which to-day feeds 
and clothes its hundred millions. 
The Yankee farmer, always of an inventive 
nature, kept adding little home-made improve¬ 
ments which did a lot to make the plow 7 more 
efficient. During the later Colonial period, the 
local carpenters made the plows while the black¬ 
smith ironed them with strips of iron. The mold- 
board, handles, standard and beam were made of 
wood, while the cutting edge and strips for the 
moldboard were made of iron. Many of our older 
readers probably can remember seeing, when they 
were young, these old home-made plows. 
In 1797 Charles Newbold, of New Jersey, in¬ 
vented a plow, a picture of which we are printing 
with this article, which was made almost entirely 
of iron. It is interesting to know that many farm¬ 
ers would not buy this plow because they thought 
so much iron drawn through the soil would poison 
it, and further that it stimulated the growth of 
weeds and retarded the growth of plants. To 
William H. Seward, the statesman, said that 
Jethro Wood benefited his country financially 
The Webster Plow, designed by the great Statesman, 
Daniel Webster, for use on his own farm. It took several 
men and two or three yoke of oxen to operate it 
more 
for it. 
than any other man and received less 
It is a far call from the ancients’ crooked stick to the modern power-driven 
gang-plow 
When the farmers took the eastern plow to the 
prairies, they found it would not cut the heavy 
prairie sod and also, after the sod was reduced, the 
wooden and cast-iron plows would not scour in the 
black soil. Thus necessity was the mother of 
invention again and the modern steel plow was 
developed. Steel, because it was strong and sharp, 
would cut the heavy sod, and because it would 
take an excellent polish, permitted the sticky 
soils to pass over the moldboard. 
Incidentally, I used to work for a farmer who 
never would allow a plow to be left even over night 
-without taking it out of the soil and giving the 
moldboard a good polish. I soon learned that the 
extra five minutes saved a good deal of trouble in 
getting the plow off to a good start the next time 
it was used. • 
The steel plow dates from about 1833. In that 
year, John Lane made a plow using strips of steel 
from an old saw. Land’s name is written quite 
highly in plow history. In 1863, he secured a pat¬ 
ent on soft centered steel, which is used almost 
everywhere now in the making of all kinds of 
tillage tools. John Deere was another pioneer in 
the development of the modern plow. In 1847, 
Deere moved to Moline, Illinois, and 
established a factory which still bears 
' his rfame. The Parlin plow, made by 
William Parlin at his factory at Can¬ 
ton, was well known and liked by 
eastern farmers. 
Farmers hailed the first practical 
riding or sulky plow with a good deal 
of enthusiasm. And well they might. 
One only has to think of the literally 
millions of miles of walking by the 
farmer in following the plow to realize 
what it meant to him to be able to 
ride on a sulky where he could do 
a better job of plowing with a less 
draft on his horses than he could 
between the punishing handles of 
a walking plow. The coming of the 
practical tractor was, of course, 
(Continued on page 11/.5) 
