The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1937-02-25

plenty of other difficulties.
This sod, tough with the
toughness Of thousands of in
terlaced roots of the tall
rank-growing grass, was very
different from the loose grav-
ely soil he had known back
East. Even when he used one
of these great prairie-break-
ing plows, drawn by three
yoke of oxen, its wooden
moldboard, plated with iron
strips, found this virgin land
a hard foe to conquer.
It was rich soil-there was
no doubt about that-rich
with its decayed vegetation
of a thousand years, and a
man could raise marvelously
abundant crops of wheat and
corn on it. But there was no
drainage and the heavy loan
chung to the iron-shod mold
board where, as one blowing
pioneer said, it ''stuck like Broth
er Jonathan's gluepot." So al
ways he had to carry wooden
paddle with him. Then, when his
straining oxen couldn't pull for
ward another step, he'd have to
jerk the pillow out of the ground
and clean it off with his paddle.
But it was only a few minutes
more until the sticky muck had
rolled up on the plowshare like
balled snow on a mans boot
heel and the cleaning process
would have to be repeated all
over again.
Under such conditions it looked
as though these prairie lands,
rich as they were, could never
be farmed satisfactorily. Then,
in 1887, just a hundred years
ago, Yankee blacksmith
changed all that. He gave them
a pillow that would "scour" it
self. His name was John Deere
and he was the Father of the
Steel Plow."
The pillow of the Eighteenth CEN
fury American was crude af-
fair, differing little from that of
his English ancestors. 1t had a
wooden moldboard, usually with
plates for turning the furrow.
Often there was only a single
handle which left one hand of
the plownan free to guide his
team of horses or to whack his
yoke of oxen, but eventually he
learned that he could do better
job with a two-handled pillow. Ev-
en- then his implement did little
more than scratch the surface
of the soil.
The First Iron Plow.
In 1877 Charles Newbold of
New Jersey completed and pat
ented the first iron pillow cast
in a single piece but strange
superstition prevented its general
acceptance. The farmers of that
day believed that a cast-iron pillow
poisoned the soil so that only
weeds would grow in it and New
bold, who had sunk a small for
tune in his invention, knew the
bitterness of having it rejected
by the men whom he had hoped
to benefit.
Two years later the versatile
Thomas jefferson, working out
his theories by mathematical cal
culations, published a scientific
discussion on the proper shape
for moldboard. One of tn e
many men who carried on cor
respondence with the Usage of
Monticello" was Jethro Wood, a
Quaker living in New York state.
Making use of Jefferson's ideas,
Wood patented in 1919 an i'm
proved cast-iron pillow. Where
Newbold's pillow had been cast
in a single piece, Woods was
so devised that the parts which
were subjected to the greatest
wear could be replaced when
worn out or if one of them was
broken.
The Quaker inventor was luck
Ter, too, than the New Jersey man
had been in issuing his model
at more favorable time for
its acceptance. BY the beginning
of the Nineteenth century inter-
est in improved farming methods
was quickened, stimulated by the
founding of agricultural socie-
ties. One of them was the Berk-
shire Agricultural society in
Massachusetts, founded by Elk
anah Watson, who would be-
come the Father of the County
Fair" Another was the Agricul-
tural Society of Philadelphia
which offered prizes and medals
to stimulate agricultural expert
mentation. On one side of it's
mad ole xryoc an nr,xaL - 1Jo,x, ooI