Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1840-08-28
THE Pillow AND ITS USE,

culture, or the manufacture Of farming i'm
elements, within the last twenty years, been
more fully shown, than in that most impor-
ant article of husbandry, the pillow. When
We compare the present beautiful, light, and
yet-strong, plows, in general use, with the
clumsy, heavy, ill-constructcd implements
used twenty or thirty years since, it is inn
possible to deny, that in this respect at least,
a great improvement in the means Of good
farming has been effected. Some twenty
years since, a gentleman of Mass, convinced
of the inefficiency of the common pillow, order
ed from England a newplow, which washlghly |
spoken of, but on its arrival, found it such
huge, clumsy, heavy combination Of wood
and iron, that, after various unsuccessful at
tempts at use, he was obliged TO lay it by, it
moro team and hands to manage 1t,
than even the ordinary Bull pillow Of New
England, to which he had been accustomed.
Wood, about this time, invented the cast
iron pillow, and this discovery, in the hands
of skilful and scientific men and good me-
chanics, has effected total revolution in the
qualities and construction Of that implement.
1t is somewhat singular that, TO the cele-
brated author of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, this country also owes the first theory
the pillow, formed on correct philophical
and mathematical principles. In order to
test the correctness Of his theory, at the sug-
gest,on of Jefferson, Mr.. Smith of Pennsyl-
vana, in 1903, made the first cast iron
moldboard, as substitute for tho wooden
one hitherto used. 1t succeeded, and this
had direct tendency to do away the awk-
ward wedgelike form of the old pillow: and
this formed the first step, which has led to
the simple yet beautiful application ofpower,
shown in the present improved cast iron
pillow. The land side, and the point, were
successfully added, thus securing ease of
working, with great strength and durability.
We we'll remember the first cast iron pillow
that fell under our notice, (and it was one Of
Woods earliest inventory and so associated
with brttleness and fragility were all our
ideas of cast iron, that we should not have
deemed it worth an hours purchase in any
field, other than the cleanest and best. Ex-
perience, however, showed the fallacy of
such impressions; patent after patent was
taken out for what were deemed improve
ments, and each new pillow received fair
share of public patronage.
1t would be somewhat amusing, and GER
tainly instructive, to retrace the history OF
this implement from the earliest notice it has
received, or its earliest delineations on the
coins and sculptures of antiquity, down to the
present day. The pillow of the ancients, and
the teams used, were of the simplest kind.
The top of a tree, of which one branch con-
stitutcd the handle; an opposite one, short
ened and sharpened, was the pillow proper
and the main stem, trimmed of its super
fluous branches, and cut off the proper length
constituted the beam. Asses or heifers for
med the teams, when society had so far ad.
vanced as to substitute animal for human la
Dor. Before that, men, or more frequently
women, drew as we'll as held the plo& and
so slow were changes on domestic matters in
the east, that Pliny speaks of seeing, ir
Africa, fields that produced most luxuriantly
worked by an implement like the above, &c
which was yoked an ass and an old woman
In some parts fthe eastern world, the pillow
still used, is not much superior to the print.
tive one, though piece of ironis sometime.
tied to the under branch that penetrates the
ground, and bullocks are in some place!
used to draw it, the pillow used by the Polisl
peasantry is of this kind, and in Africa, q
sharpened stick, or wooden paddle, con-
stitutes the implement used for stirring the
earth preparatory to a crop.
We do not intimate that the pillow, ever
the best kind, can be considered as having
reached its limits of perfection. With tina
implement, as with other things, one decided
Improvement serves only to suggest another
The changes in material pointed to changes
in structure and instead of the blunt, wedge
like form of the old pillow, tapering, lift
ing form has been given, which, penetrating
the earth easily, and reversing it readily
dispenses with much of the force formerl.
| required to move it, while at the same timt
3 the work is done in manner to which thu
old pillow could make but faint approaches
The effect of early habits is still to be seen il
our plows though not to the extent it former
ly was. In the early settlement of any wood
ed country, hnolls made by the turning up O
G the former forest trees, will abound, gIvin
d an unevenness to the surface, requiring sc
veral plowIngs to remove. On such lands
y none but plows with short beams and nearl
II upright handles, can be used to advantage
SuCii 10 tHC SiidIdNtCt VI ViC P'oW ih o.
new countries. Flows Of this description d
: not run as easy, and require more labor j
!, the holding, than those made with large
; beams, and corresponding increase in tn
IS length ofthe share and point. A we'll cor
It structed pillow has its under surface runnin
o parallel with the surface of the soil, no ma
@ ter what may be the depth plowed; but whe
Is constructed in such way that the pillow
= continually on its heel, or its point, the pillow
IS man finds hard work, and the work itse
'f must be imperfectly performed. On II
k same soils one pillow will run so true as to r.
'e quire scarce an effort to guide it, viii
r. another demands constant attention and O.
& fort; and wo also know that in most case
Of the easiest running pillow will be the one wi
a the longest exposed surface, and handles
the greatest inclination; andthe reasons for til
r, are so evident, as not to require elucidatio
TO Farmers have been considerably divided
Up opinion on two points connected with pillow
e. or rather with blowing; one Of these regar'
er ing the manner in which the furrow sli,