The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1881-02-12
Facts About the pIow.


In the Rhode Island .iB.trIcaB OF 1920 The
writer describes the work Of the pillow that was
in use in Massachusetts called the "Old Col
ony" plOw He says: 1t had tcn-foot beam
and rOur-lcot land side. The burrows winch il
makes stand up like the RIBS OF lean horst
in the month of March. SIX Of these plows
cost me on an average of s. each per annun
70 keep the shares and Coultcrs sharp, while
the other parts cost 81 more, making So tol
each pow.
The implement in usc on my fathers farm
IN my buyhoOd WAS 0i this description, made
by the ueghhoring carpenter and blacksmith
1t required a team Of eight oxen to draw it,
with II man riding on the beam TO Keep it in
the ground, another to follow with a mattock
TO improve its imperfect work.
The first cast iron ploughs made their ap
pearanCc about 1885. There was strong pre-
judiCe against them on the part of the farmer
"A prejudice due wholly to ignorance. II
was said that cast iron would pojson the ground
About the year 1910 ploughs made their ap.
pearanCc, which were constructed with regard
20 the Lest lines of draft,
From that time TO the present host Of farm
ers and mechanics have set themselves to IN.
prove this implement Of husbandry, TIL at last
We have the gang pillow Oh the western prairie,
drawn by four horses, blowing five acres "a day,
=
monarch driving his team atield.
In 1866 the New York State Agricultural
Society conducted series Of trials 10 ascertain
what lines of draft offered the least resistance,
and what form OF p,ow would do the best work
In their report il is stated that improvements
to that date had decreased the cost Of blowing
At least torfy.two per cent. Since that report
there has been great advance in the econO-
mics of husbandry.
1t is estimated that the improvements have
decreased the cost Of plowing not less than
sixty per cent. during the century. The en-
tire acreage under the plow, in the United
States IN 1873 is estimated at 40 O00, 900 acres
II we assume that it costs 5 por acre to pillow
land, and if the saving over former methods
Is even fifty per cent, we find it equivalent to
S,OOGOOCO. SO much per aunum which IN
vention - accomplishing in this line OF huS
bantry. The great want of the agriCulturist
to-day is the steam pillow, or some method by
which blowing can he done more expeditions
ly than with horses. | trust however, that no
one in this audience will rush hurriedly to in
vent pillow "a be driven by steam. thas been
maintained that we have no need OF patent
laws that when the community demanded a
given machine somebody would produce IT,
In 1856, | saw n steam pillow in Illinois, upon
which many thousand dollars had been ex-
pended, but which was so cumbersome that 1t
could not be made to work. 1 saw steam
machine IN California in 1868 which cost $40
600; 10y the aid Of horses it went once across
field and then was thrown aside ! saw an
other in Minnesota III 1870, which had cost
$25 900. and which after few trials was bro
ken up for old iron. Two gentlemen in Eng
land have spent, each, more than quarter of
million dollars in the attempt TO produce a
steam pillow which would traverse the field,
h,,kI, tod ,xln,.
use in England is drawn by stationery en-
slnc using wire rope. Ii is not 80 economi-
cal as horsepower but larger acreage can be
put in per day.