The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-04-04
Jefferson the Inventor of
the PlOW.

Thomas Jefferson was a many sided
man. During a career of forty years as
a statesman and diplomat he was busy
in varied fields of activity with efforts
to serve his country and to promote the
progress of the race. One of the builders
of the great republic, his chief pride was
i'll his work as founder of the University
of Virginia. But even the most minute
affairs of the industry of the period
claimed his attention. He was the Ben
iamin Franklin of the South, without
Poor Richards thrift. He was, too
more of theorist. even when he di-
vorced his thoughts from political philos-
ophy and devoted himself to things per-
tanning exclusively to the sphere of in
dustry. Virginia was an agricultural
rather than a manufacturing or CONNER
cial colony and it naturally follows that
Jeffersons efforts for material advance
ment had to do with agriculture He
was a pioneer in the movement to apply
science to the cultivation of the soil He
sought to increase the variety and i'm
prove the quality of the products of the
farm. He improved stock in domestic
animals and sought to transplant in AM
erica the vines and fruit trees of the Old
World. But it is as the inventor Of the
plow from which the modern pow was
developed that Jefferson rendered his
greatest service to agriculture.
In world so entirely new we are apt
to overlook the newness of the compare
lively small things. With all our highly
complex industrial civilization the farm
is still the basis of the structure. Mod
ern progress in other directions would
have been impossible without approx
mately corresponding progress in the
methods by which the worlds food is
produced. The modern pillow is scarcely
less an advance over the crude implement
of hundred years ago than is the mod
ern palace car over the old stage coach.
Nor is it a factor of less Importance in
our new civilization. For this useful and
necessary tool of industry We are largely
indebted to Jefferson.
Travelling in France and Germany in
1888 Jefferson closely observed the meth
DDS of farming and the implements used.
At Nancy, he made this entry in his
journal:
oxen pillow here with collars and
names. The awkward figure of their
mold boards leads one to consider what
should be It's form The offices of the
mold board are to receive the sod after
the spade has cut under it, to raise it
gradually and to reverse it. The fore end
of it should, therefore, be horizontal, to
enter under the sod, and the hind end
perpendicular, to throw it over, the in
termediate surface changing gradually
ho FOL TO l,n n i0IIl a
1t should be as wide as the furrow and
length suited to the construction of the
plOw."
In 1898 this theory was reduced to prac-
tice. and some years later, when there
was a dispute as to who was the inven-
tor, Jeffersons claim was investigated by
the English Board of Agriculture, his in
vention acknowledged and he was elected
an honorary member of the board.
In the collection of Jefferson letters in
the possession of the Hon. Geo. ID. Todd
is one written to Judge Innes concerning
the pillow. Judge lines. like Mr.. Jeffer-
son, was active in his efforts to promote
agriculture and all lines of industry.
And neither of them permitted the cares
of Office to interrupt their efforts in this
direction. While Mr.. Jefferson was
President and lines Judge of the Federal
Court for the district of Kentucky. the
President wrote the following letter:
Washington D. c.. June 20, 1906
Dear Sir: Your favor of May &c is
! duly received and / have to observe that
used the mould board you mentioned
with the common bar share plough, moth
ing about it being changed but the
mould board. l can assure you that the
same horses ON my farm would make a
furrow with this mould board two inches
deeper than they could with a common
mould board owing to the difference of
resistance adhering to the principle of
the mould board. I have since varied it,
formerly giving it a sharp toe instead of
square one. The effect of this change
is to shorten the plough about six inches.
l enclose you a description of this
change Accept my salutatiOns and as
surances of great esteem and respect.
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
Judge Innes."
The original of this letter which has
never before been published, was given
to Col r. T. Durrett, of the Ellison Club,
by Mr.. Todd. Mr.. Todd still retains the
printed description which was enclosed
with the letter. Mr.. Jefferson evidently
had this printed for private circulation
among his trends. n answer to such in
quiries as he had received from Judge
lines. 1t is as nearly reproduced on this
page as the modern types will permit.
| MIR. Jefferson also imported the genuine
| race of shepherd dogs into this country
| His letter on this subject, another in
Mr. Todds collection that does not APP
pear in his published correspondence, dis
plays his interest in the farm and purely
domestic affairs. 1t is as follows:
Monticello, Sept. Is, 1813.-Dear Sir:
Your information is correct that we pos
! sess here the genuine race of Shepherd
| dogs. l imported them from France
about four years ago. They were selected
for me by the Marquis Fayette, and
! have endeaYored to secure their preser-