Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1874-05-21

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hardly have known how to have made
choice.
THE PLOW.
The pillow is, par excellence, the en-
blem of agriculture, and its history,
both authentic and NEUROLOGICAL, pos
sesses a peculiar interest. The period
at which man first began to commute
the soil for the purpose of making it
produce sustenance for himself and his
fiocks is so remote as to be lost in the
obscurity of the past; but that it was
at an early period is clear. 1t is also
generally admitted that the OK and COW
were in this age used as native farmers,
and it is asserted that men and women
captured in war and reduced to slavery
were employed in this way before the OK
was trained or the COW became accus-
toned to the yoke for war and its
offspring, slavery, areolder thanagricult.
ure.
The earliest pillow was pointed stick,
which the primitive man used to break
up the soil This was a slow and labo-
rious process, and one day the thought
came to one wiser than his fellows that
the forked limb of tree might be made
efficient for this purpose. Acting upon
this thought, he formed pillow by cut
ting forked limb from tree and
sharpening one Of the prongs, so that it
would penetrate the. soil. 1t took two
persons to use this implement-one to
draw it, which he did by bark or raw
hide trace, and one to hold and push it
into the ground. This, the first pillow,
proved a great success, and was for a
while thought to be the ne plus ultra
of improvement In that line In the
course of time, however, some ingenious
laborer began to question theperfection
of this implement, and finding limb of
somewhat different shape, he constructed
an improved pillow. The old fogies shook
their heads and muttered "humbug, {"
but the progressive men adopted it, and
it ultimately superseded the earlier de-
vices. Ages went by before the forked
stick pillow was succeeded by another,
composed of several pieces of wood held
together by mortises and pins. This
was improved from time to time, until
| it approached as near perfection as it
was possible for pillow composed wholly
of wood.
The Romans we're probably the first
to use iron In the construction of the
pillow. The pillow that Cincinnatus fol-
lowed was a rude affair, with no iron in
it except the point and share. The
Greeks have myth which is interest
ing in this connection. Proserpine, a
daughter of Ceres goddess Of agricult-
ure), was abducted by Pluto while she
was in the forest gathering flowers, and
was installed as queen of the lower re-
gions. Ceres, inconsolable at the loss
of her daughter, wholly neglected the
agricultural interests in her search for
the missing goddess. The result was
that the whole earth eventually became
gods impfored her to return to olympus
and resume her duties as guardian of
agriculture, but in vain. She could
think of nothing except her lost daugh-
ter. Jupiter now visited Pluto and
persuaded him to permit Proserpine to
revisit the earth and remain eight months
each year, and then return and spend
the other four with him. Ceres con-
sented to this arrangement, and at once
returned to Olympus. Before going,
however, she instructed Triptolemus of
Eleusis in the art of agriculture, and
giving him her own chariot, drawn by
dragons, commanded him to travel over
the whole earth and distribute seed corn
to its inhabitants. Triptolemus was the
inventor of the pillow. The Greeks held
two feasts year IN his honor, one on
account of the distribution of seed and
the other because he invented the plow.
without which the seed would have
been of little use.
Little improvement seems to have
been made in the pillow used by the
Greeks and Romans for over two thou
sand years, and indeed it was a most
clumsy affair, as recently as fifty years
ago being only wedge, clearing the
soil and COMPRISING the subsoil.
1t may be- predicted that before many
years, some Yankee Triptolemus will
revolutionize the pillow by constructing
one that shall combine the functions of
both the pillow and the harrow, and pos
sibly other and valuable adjuncts not
now anticipated. With all due respect
to the great plowmakers, it must be adj
mitted that the mechanical idea en-
bodied in the pillow as now constructed
is imperfect, and it is time this was
recognized and correct principles in
corporated In its construction, that it
might meet the demands OF this pro-
gressive and utilitarian age. Some at
tempts in this direction have already
been made, but they, like all first at
tempts to embody a new idea, have been
only partially successful. 1t is a
recognized axiom of modern times, that
American genius and perseverance
know no such word as failure" and il
is confidently expected that success in
this department of mechanical invention
will soon be achieved.