Jethro Wood, Inventor of the Modern Plow Part 2

The primitive plow was and is (for the barbarian of to-day is substantially the same in his agricultural methods as the barbarian of antiquity) simply a forked stick, to which is attached by a strip of rawhide or a wisp of gra.s.s, a beast, often the patient cow. As the p.r.o.ng pa.s.ses over the ground, held down by the bowed form of the poor tiller, it barely scratches the face of the earth.

The first improvement was to reverse the stick and notch the forward end. By that means the animal could be more securely fastened to the plow, the thong being tied around the crotch of the stick. The shorter limb ran along the surface of the ground, the notch in front being the only reliance for stirring the soil. In the absence of a compact turf, such plowing would do a little good in rendering the ground fallow, and would at least have the merit of not being so difficult to operate as its predecessor.

The third plow had three parts. It consisted of a beam, a handle and a share, all constructed by simply tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the natural wood selected for that purpose. In the first plow the p.r.o.ng which served as a share was slanting, while in the third it rested flatly upon the ground, projecting forward, instead of backward, as in the second plow. It could have required no very difficult search to have found small trees and broken limbs, needing no mechanical skill in fas.h.i.+oning, to render them serviceable for such crude uses. They may be termed nature's contribution to the art of plow-making.

Without going further into details, it may be stated that a standard authority on the history of mechanism a.s.serts that "the ancient Egyptian, Etruscan, Syrian, and Greek plows, were equal to the modern plows of the south of France, part of Austria, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, Persia, Arabia, India, Ceylon and China; at least such was the case until the middle of the present century." The Roman and Gallic plows were better than those of the modern countries named. The Gauls had mould-board plows. Pliny is our authority for this statement. That eminent Latin author of eighteen centuries ago, in speaking on the general subject, says:

"Plows are of various kinds. The colter is the iron part which cuts the thick sod before it is broken into pieces and traces beforehand by its incision the future furrows, which the share, reversed, is to open with its teeth. Another kind, the common plowshare, is nothing more than a lever furnished with a pointed beak; while another variety, which is used in light, easy soils, does not present an edge projecting from the share-beam throughout, but only a small point at the extremity. In a fourth kind, again, this point is larger and formed with a cutting edge by the agency of which it cleaves the ground, and by the sharp edges at the side cuts up the weeds by the roots."

Pliny adds that the broader the plowshare the better it is for turning up the soil. These excerpts from the great Roman may serve to show the utmost reach of invention in that line, until a new impulse, begun in the Netherlands in the eighteenth century, was brought to perfect development in the next century by an American citizen who died the poorer for his invention.

The highest of all authorities upon this and cognate subjects is "Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary," and Knight says of Jethro Wood, "He made the best plows up to date." He adds, "He met with great opposition, and then with much injustice, losing a competency in introducing his plow and fighting infringers." The same writer defines the peculiarities of the Wood plow with remarkable clearness and brevity: "It consisted in the mode of securing the cast-iron portions together by lugs and locking pieces, doing away with screw-bolts, and much weight, complexity and expense. It was the first plow in which the parts most exposed to wear could be renewed in the field by the subst.i.tution of cast pieces." Considering the source of this pa.s.sage, it may be said that literature could hardly pay a n.o.bler tribute to the memory of Jethro Wood than this. It is doubly significant, from the fact that Knight's publishers, Houghton, Osgood & Co., are also the publishers of the _Atlantic Monthly_, in the May number of which magazine a _habitue_ of the National Capital tried to belittle the invention of Jethro Wood, and malign as iniquitous the attempt of his daughters, championed by John Quincy Adams, to secure for that invention proper recognition. It would be quite superfluous to follow this maligner in the details of this, and a subsequent attack in an agricultural journal. He disclaims any design to defame the claimants, but insists that other and earlier inventors deserve the credit for the modern plow. The opinion of Knight's Dictionary upon the Wood patent has just been given, and the following extract from the same great work sets forth in their proper relations to the modern plow the inventions of those for whom this _habitue_ makes preposterous claims:

"The modern plow," says Knight, "originated in the low countries, so-called. Flanders and Holland gave to England much of her husbandry and gardening knowledge, field, kitchen and ornamental. Blythe's 'Improver Improved,' published in 1652, has allusions to the subject.

Lummis, in 1720, imported plows from Holland. James Small, of Berwicks.h.i.+re, Scotland, made plows and wrote treatises on the subject, 1784. He made cast-iron mold-boards and wrought-iron shares, and introduced the draft-chain. He made shares of cast-iron in 1785. The importation of what was known as the 'Rotherham' plow was the immediate cause of the improvement in plows which dates from the middle of the last century. Whether the name is derived from Rotterdam cannot be determined.

"The American plow, during the colonial period, was of wood, the mold-board being covered with sheet-iron, or plates made by hammering out old horseshoes. Jefferson studied and wrote on the subject, to determine the proper shape of the mold-board. He treated it as consisting of a lifting and an upsetting wedge, with an easy connecting curve. Newbold, of New Jersey, in 1797, patented a plow with a mold-board, share and land side all cast together. Peac.o.c.k, in his patent of 1807, cast his plow in three pieces, the point of the colter entering a notch in the breast of the share."

It will be observed that the credit given these improvers of the plow is very considerable, without at all trenching upon the exceptional credit due to Jethro Wood. With such an authoritative refutation, the slander may well be dismissed as beneath further notice.

In no way more appropriately can final leave be taken of the subject in hand than by presenting the apostrophe to Jethro Wood from the pen of Edward Webster, formerly a.s.sociated editor of the _Rural New Yorker_:

No jeweled diadem or crown E'er glittered on thy manly brow-- No slave would tremble at thy frown, Nor at thy footstool bow; For thou wert pure in heart and mind, And strove to _raise_--not crush mankind!

As famed Prometheus of yore, In aid of our lost, wretched sires, Stole from the flaming-sun, and bore Down to the earth those fires That fill with light and life all s.p.a.ce, And mark the Day G.o.d's glorious race--

So thy inventive genius found For man the bright and polished share, That bids the willing fields abound With fruits beyond compare; And from the seed that falls like rain Crowds full our barns with bearded grain!

Eternal may the honors s.h.i.+ne, We yield with grateful hearts to thee; May children's children round thy shrine-- Sons of the brave and free-- With reverent lips p.r.o.nounce thy name, And build for thee a deathless fame!