Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-12-12
GENESIS OF THE PLoW.
Thomas Jefferson's Implement One oi
the First Moderns.

the First Moderns.
It Is astonishing how long 1t took
the human race to invent any decent
farm implements. For many centu-
ries after he emerged from barbar-
ism and had learned how to live by
agriculture, instead of first by hunting
and then by raising flocks, he went
along in the crudest way, making
little or no improvements from
age to age. His first need, Of course,
was something with which to stir
the soil, and for this purpose he
fashioned a stick, which he himself
drew. Long afterward, when beasts
were trained for burden and draft,
the stick was enlarged and drawn by
them. At that point, however. agri-
cultural invention stuck. The people
who figure in the Bible, covering
period of some twelve centuries, had
nothing better by way Of plow than
this forked stick. Solomon, with all
his wisdom, seemed to have no in
ventive talent and allowed his people
to continue scratching the earth with
this rude implement. They were
great in philosophy. could write mag
nificent poetry and wind on proven
bial wisdom by the volume, but not
man In Judea ever produced any
thing to help along agricultural pro-
gress. Even the Greeks, so ingeni-
Gus in other respects, failed lament
ably to help their farmers with TOOLS
to save time and labor. The same
story comes from all the other early
nations, the Assyrians, Babylonians,
Egyptians and every country OF Asia.
CYRUS, the great Persian, with all his
conauests did nothing for soil culture.
It was at a comparatively recent per-
iod ard only In limited sections that
they got far enough to shoe their
blowing stick with iron, and this was
the best they did through all the CEN
turtles down to a little more than 100
years ago.
Some improvement was made In
Great Britain during the eighteenth
century in the form of p!ows, but the
primitive instrument remained In COM
mon use, generally made by the farmer
himself. 1t is not generally known that
Thos. Jefferson invented plow which
he described as having the "moldboard
of least resistance" 1t did not come
into general use, however, but Is In
teresting as showing the ingenuity OF
that many sided man. The first Amer
lean patent on a plow was granted TO
Charles Newbold Of New Jersey In 1897.
It was a cast-iron affair and good
stagger in the right direction, but Jeth-
no Wood laid the foundation for the
modern plow. He gave 1t its present
form and made 1t Of cast-iron, patented
in 1919. About 20 years later ploW-
making became extensive and hnally
John Deert, the pioneer inventor,
brought the plow to its present per-
fected state. The original cultivator'
like the original plow, was a hooked
stick, which in time developed into the
hoe, ard this remained the common
cultivating implement until the nine
teenth century was we'll advanced.
Early in the last century Jethro Tull
originated, IN England, the horse-hoe
system of cultivation, and in 1856 Geo.
Esterly took out patent on .strad-
dle-row, two-horse cultivator. That
was the beginning Of the present almost
?dlcsss variety Of this class Of farm
implements. The earliest demonstra-
ton of successful reaper was made by
Cyrus Hall Mccormick, in Virginia, In
the summer of. 1881, and this was the
great forerunner Of all the modern
reapers. II the United States had
done nothing more, its contributions to
agricultural invention would have en-
titled it to high rank as an international
benefactor Of civilization and progress.
American Farmer.