American agricultural implements; a review of invention and development in the agricultural implement industry of the United States ..

Front matter

THE LIBRARY

AMERICAN

Agricultural Implements

CHAPTER I. The Development of the American Plow

THE first agricultural implement used by prehistoric man, as shown by remains found in peat bogs of England, France and other countries, was a hooked stick, or sometimes a stag's horn, adapted to the work of digging and stirring the soil in planting seed. This rude tool — it can scarcely be called an invention — developed in course of time into something more like a plow, the forked stick with a long branch to which animals were attached, and perhaps an artificial brace added to strengthen the other branch used as the share or "bottom." This stj-le has been found illustrated on an ancient monument in Asia Minor. Its antiquity is demonstrated by the fact that the plow, as represented on Egyptian monuments more than 3000 years B. C, shows a slight improvement over it. The Romans are also known to have used wooden plows of a very primitive type, Ti\'ith an improvement in the days of the Tarquins of a handle, which allowed the plowman to more easily hold the point in the ground. Chinese historians say that the Emperor Shen Neng, who ascended the throne of China 2737 B.C., "first fashioned timber into plows and taught the people the art of husbandry."

The records of the past fail to show us when and where metal points or shares were first used. Several prophetic allusions are made in the Old Testament to the time when warriors would "beat their swords into plow shares," and it is known that ancient Egyptians and Assyrians had plows that were pointed or edged with copper and iron, but the time when metal was first used cannot be even guessed.

In a later period, probably in the time of Cincinnatus and Cato, the Romans used a plow that was quite different from the older patterns common in various countries. J. Stanton Gould, in his report to the New York Agricultural Society in 1856, says that this plow "will be found to exactly agree with the description of the implement given by Virgil in the Georgics. The sole of the plow has two rectangular pieces of wood fixed to it on each side, forming an acute angle with it, in which the teeth {dentalia) are inserted. This exactly answers the description of Virgil : 'Duplici aptantiir dentalia dorso" (the teeth are fitted to the double back). These project obliquely upward, and perform the office of a mouldboard. The share was of metal."

The plows of ancient times seem, however, to have been built only for the purpo.se of breaking and stirring the soil, the bottom having been invariably a simple wedge, with no power to turn a furrow. It is true that plows may have been made with one side straight like a modern landside, and with the other side extending out to push the loosened soil over and thus leave something like a furrow, but "no one had as yet grasped the idea of combining two wedges in the same implement, nor had they any idea of the curves bv which this could be effected." The practical combination of share and mouldboard remained to be discovered.

Gould refers to a wheeled plow used in France for centuries, no one knows just how long, which seems to be the first feeble attempt to realize the idea of a mouldboard. Its model has been handed down unchanged for centuries. It had the principle of the twisted wedge, ' ' raising up the earth first and then twisting it to the right. It is furnished with two wheels to keep it steady in the furrow, and a coulter of the modern form. It is a rude affair when compared with our modem implements, but it shows real genius in its author. ' '

It is well to note here that this is not the first use of either the wheel or coulter on a plow. Plows having the beams supported by two wheels, some of them approaching in form the two-wheeled sulky so popular a few years ago, were made by the Greeks 2000 years ago. The coulter was certainly known in the time of William the Conqueror, in the eleventh century, in England, if not earlier, for we read that at that time plows with their beams supported on wheels were very common, one of them being described as follows: "It was drawn by four oxen and fastened to them by ropes made of twisted willows, and sometimes by the skins of whales. It consists of a simple wooden wedge, covered with straps of iron, one side being placed parallel to the line of the plow's direction, the other sweeping over to the left hand, cleaning it from its own path and leaving an unobstructed furrow for the next slice. .\ coulter, not unlike those now in use, is inserted in the beam, and a wheel is placed in front to regulate the depth."

Thus far, however, it would seem that no real inventor had appeared to contribute to the development of the plow\ and even as late as fifty years ago in this country- the usual method of plow-making was for the farmer to purchase the wood part of his plow from a ' 'plow-wright (or often from the jack-of-all-trades wagon maker) and have it "ironed" by the local blacksmith, although sometimes the wagon maker bought the irons and "stocked" them.

The first English patent granted on a plow was to Joseph Foljambe, of York.shire, in 1720, he having invented a number of improvements on a crude style of plow, which had been brought from Holland. The bottom of Foljambe 's plow was of wood, with a sheet-iron covering on the wearing parts and a point of iron plate. The coulter was, of cour.se, made of iron.' The point was conical in form and the furrow was raised by it and then turned over by the mouldboard. The handles and beam were better proportioned than any that had been in use previously, and the first clevis

AMERICAN AGRICULTIKAI, IMPLEMENTS.

JAMES SMALL'S EAST LOTHIAN PLOW,

FRAME OF THE EAST LOTHtAN PLOW

S AMERICAN AGRICUI.TURAl, IMPI^EMENTS.

thai is known to have been used on a plow was fitted to the beam. But this plow, although it was superior to anything then known, did not come into general use until James Small established his factory at Black Alder Mount, Scotland, in 1763, and began to manufacture and sell plows on what was then a large scale. In time he made manj' improvements, and the plow finally assumed the style of the East Lothian, which gave general form and feature to all the common British plows since. The beam and handles were of wrought iron, the body frame and mouldboard were cast, and the share was of wrought iron. Robert Ransome, of Ipswich, England, obtained a patent in 1785 for making the share of cast-iron, and in 1S()3 for case-hardening or chilling the share, and Thomas Brown, of Alnwick, England, was engaged at the opening of this century in building plows of improved form and construction still more approaching the modern implement. The seed sown by Ransome in 1785 took root, and produced a manufacturing establishment, which to this day is one of the largest in England, having followed the industry through all the changes of a century. Howard, beginning about 1840, established a factory which has also continued to the present day, having contributed, from time to time, improvements and changes in patterns as demanded by the progress of invention or the change in "fashion."

In America, progress in the development of the plow was slow during colonial times, owing to the narrow policy of England in discouraging or prohibiting altogether the establishment of factories. The manner of making a plow a centurj' ago was remarkably crude, judged by modern standards. In the language of Gould: " A winding tree was cut down, and a mouldboard hewed from it, with the grain of the timber running as nearly along its shape as it could well be obtained. On to thi-s mouldboard, to prevents its wearing out too rapidly, were nailed the blade of an old hoe, or thin straps of iron or wornout horseshoes. The landside was of wood, its base and sides shod with thin plates of iron. The share was of iron, with a hardened steel point. The coulter was tolerably well made of iron, steel edged, and locked into the share nearly as it does in the improved lock coulter of the present day (1856). The beam was usually a straight stick; the handles, like the mouldboard, split from the crooked trunk of a tree, or as often cut from its branches, the crooked roots of the white ash being the favorite timber for plow handles in the northern states. The beam was set at any pitch fancy might dictate, with the handles fastened on almost at right angles with it, thus leaving the plowman little control over his implement, which did its work in a ver^' slow and most imperfect manner." It must be remembered, however, that in colonial times the land under cultivation was very largely "new ground," or land recently cleared of timber, with a porous soil which was easily penetrated and stirred up. It had neither the stickiness nor tendency to bake of clay land which has long been under cultivation, nor the impenetrable network of leathery grass roots which made the breaking of virgin prairie soil so difficult. And besides, farming was conducted on a far smaller scale then, for the cities being small and few in number, the market for farm products was limited, and the average farmer contented himself with growing enough for his family, with a

AMERICAN' AGRICrLTURAI, IMPI.KMKNTS. 9

small surplus for purchasing the very few articles of commerce indulged in at that early day.

Thomas Jefferson, the renowned statesman, was the first to bring theoretical knowledge to the design and the construction of the mouldboard. Writing in 1788, he referred to the curves which should characterize a mouldboard, and said: "The offices of the mouldboard are to receive the sod after the share has cut under it, to raise it gradually and to recover it. The fore end cf it should, therefore, be horizontal, to enter the sod, and the hind end perpendicular, to throw it over; the intermediate surface changing gradually from the horizontal to perpendicular. It should be as wide as the farrow, and of a length suited to the construction of the plow." While Jefferson succeeded very well in using the experimental plows which he made, the time was not yet ripe for the general adoption of his ideas, and his work was lost for a generation, until it was taken up and improved upon by Wood and later inventors.

The first letters patent granted in America, on a plow, was in 1797, to Chas. Newbold, a farmer of Burlington, N. J. His specification was as follows: "The subscriber, Chas. Newbold, of Burlington county. New Jersey, has invented an improvement in the art of plow making, as follows, viz. : The plow to be (excepting the handles and beam) of solid cast iron, consisting of a bar, sheath and mouldplate. The sheath serves a double purpose of coulter and sheath, and the mouldplate serves for share and mouldboard, that is, to cut and turn the furrow. The forms to be varied, retaining the same general principles, to meet the various uses, as well as inclinations of those who use them." Although Newbold's plow worked well, far better than those in general use at that time, the farmers rejected it, on the plea that the cast iron "poisoned the land," and stimulated the growth of weeds, end after spending ^30,000 in trying to get it introduced, the inventor gave up the task in despair. During the twenty years following Newbold's invention, a number of patents on plows were issued, but nothing valuable was contributed to the art of plow building, and the rude "bull" plow with its wooden mouldboard still ruled the realm.

Jethro Wood's invention, patented September i, 1819, ushered in a new era in the history of the plow, the era of manufacturing, as distinguished from the era of building in small quantities by blacksmiths or "plow Wrights. " In Wood's plow, cast iron was substituted for the wooden mouldboard, landside and standard, and a cast iron point or share for the old wrought, steel tipped share. But the most important part of Wood's '\\w(inWon \va.sth.e intejchangeability 0/ parts. This it was that established the era of manufacturing, by making it possible for the farmer to replace a wornout or broken casting with a new one from the factory. Wood also sought to form his mouldboard on scientific principles, so that the pressure of the turning furrow would be evenly distributed on its surface, and thus avoid wearing it in spots. After many ups and downs. Wood succeeded in reducing every point of his invention to practice, and its merits soon won for it wide recognition, followed by a general demand from the farmers for the new plow; and then began the struggle which finally drove the noble inventor to his grave. A demand once created for the invention, others beam);kican acricuIvTurai, imi'mcmivnts.

CORSICAN PLOW.

SICILIAN PLOW.

PLOW OF CENTRAL RUSSIA-

PLOW FROM CREMONA, ITALY.

PLOW, DRAWN BY OXEN, FROM SARDINIA. ITALI.-VN PLOW FROM LOMB.^RDY PLAINS.

FUE.NCH PLOW.

I.MPROVED FLEMISH PLOW

AMERICAN AGRICrLTURAI, IMPLEMENTS. 11

gan to manufacture it — in wanton disregard of the inventor's rights, acquired by his work of a lifetime, and the expenditure of a fortune in his experiments — and in his efforts to enforce his rights in the courts his little remaining property was spent, and his children, after his death in 1834, were equally unsuccessful in securing reparation, although congress had, in 1833, extended the life of his patent fourteen years. In the words of Wm. H. Seward, secretary of state under Lincoln: "No citizen of the United States has conferred greater economical benefits on his country than Jethro Wood — none of her benefactors have been more inadequately rewarded."

Manufacturers throughout the country having copied Wood's invention with alacrity, it was not long until cast iron plows were in general use, and for a generation or longer but little was done to improve his model, further than to make changes in detail, adapting it to the needs of different parts of the country.

Joel Nourse was one of the noted plowmen of the generation succeeding Wood. He first started at Shrewsbury, Mass., but afterwards remo\ed to Worcester, and in 1842, perfected the famous Eagle series, plows with a longer mouldboard than Wood's, and with a greater turn, breaking the furrow more thoroughly. The sales in the forties of Nourse's firm, (Ruggles, Nourse, Mason & Co.), were said to have reached 25,000 and 30,000 plows per year.

THE INVENTION OF THE CHILLED PLOW.

There remains to be noticed an important step in the perfection of the plows in use throughout the eastern states. Efforts to harden the wearing parts,, and thus make them more durable, began almost with the first use of cast plows, but the chilling process was so little understood, that for more than half a century no one could master it. Credit for making the chilled plow a practical success is due to James Oliver, who began experiments soon after establishing his plow shop or factory at South Bend, Ind. , in 1853.

It is a fact worthy of note, that when cast or "grey iron" plows first came into use, made after the patterns of Wood, Nourse and others, no complaints were heard in regard to scouring. But as the country grew older, and the soil, by repeated working, became dense and sticky, it was found that cast ii-on scoured with difficulty, or not at all. Hence the great demand that was heard among the next generation for a new kind of plow that would respond to the changed requirements. This demand was filled by the invention of the chilled plow, as was also the demand for a mouldboard that would withstand more efficiently the wearing of gravelly or sandy soil.

It was this general and unremitting demand that led Mr. Oliver to persevere in his efforts to produce a perfect chilled plow, in the face of as great obstacles as ever embarrassed an inventor. For years it seemed as though the problem would not be solved, so long did it require to produce a chilled mouldboard that would meet the varying requirements of the farmers, but success dawned at last, and with it a new epoch in agriculture.

Thomas Jefferson had formulated the design of an ideal mouldboard, and Jethro Wood had done much to realize this ideal, but of the cast plows in use when Mr. Oliver began his experiments, there were few that had

AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL, IMPI^RMHXTS.

WOODEN Mori,DBOARD DUTCH PLOW FROM WOODEN MOUT DBOARD PLOW FROM rF.XNSYL-

ALBANY tnlNTV. N. Y., 100 YEARS OLD. VANIA, 100 YEARS OLD.

WOODEN UrorTLDBOARD HORIZONTAL SHARE I'LOW, OF A CENTURY AGO

JETHRO WOOD'S PLOW, PATENTED SEPT. 1, 1819.

CHAS. NEWBOLD'S PLOW, PATENTED 1797.

FIRST .AMERICAN CASTIRON PLOW.

ZADOK HARRIS' PLOW, 1819.

SIR JO=,UL A OIBB:, STLEL PLOW, 1838. NOUKSE'S EAGLE PLOW, BUILT IN THE "FORTIES'

OLIVERS CHILLED EDGE SHARE, PATENTED JULY 29, 1879.

OLIVER'S PATENT NOV. 18,1873.

mouldboards even approximating the best form by which lightness of draft, even distribution of the pressure of the soil over the wearing surface, and a properly laid furrow might be secured.

Two fundamental defects had hitherto stood in the way of a successful chilled mouldboard. One was the frequency of soft spots or blow holes in the casting, making it short lived, and the other was the extreme brittleness of chilled metal, and the risk of breakage in a mouldboard of convenient weight and thickness. A remedy for the first was finally discovered in using hot water under certain conditions in the chills, and a way was soon afterwards found for removing the brittleness. By a peculiar annealing process it was made possible to toughen the metal without softening it, and so to give it the strength that would enable it to endure the hard usage of general purpose work on a million farms. With this discovery the last barrier in the way of a successful chilled plow was removed.

In their general construction the cast and chilled plows of the east have been so different that it will be proper to follow them a little farther before taking up steel plows. The two classes may thus be kept distinct. Apparentlv the first patent covering a practical device for adjusting the hea.ui laterally in a plow was issued to E. Ball, of Canton, Ohio, more famous as a reaper inventor, the patent bearing date of March 23, 1852. It showed a standard with a double head, with the beam held to it by two bolts in such a way that it could be adjusted both laterally and vertically. The beam was cut off at the rear of the standard.

R. A. Graham's patent, Oct. 4, 1S53, showed a lug on the landside handle to which the heel of the beam was attached, a peculiarly arranged set screw giving the beam a lateral adjustment. This patent also claimed a screw-bolt in the bottom of the handles, arranged as an adjustable brace for the mouldboard. Still another method of shifting a beam lateral!}- was shown in the patent of A. W. Stoker, Sept. 11, 186tj, in which the handle brace was a rod extending through the heel of the beam, a portion of the rod being threaded to permit of holding the beam in position with nuts.

The slotted handle brace now in general use on plows that are adapted to either two or three horses, was patented by James Oliver, Feb. 21, 1871. In this patent Mr. Oliver covered also a share with a fin cast upon it extending upward from the landside edge of the point so as to cut the soil or sod. June 18, 1872, the same inventor patented his peculiar standard by which the beam is brought more directly over the line of draft, the shin extending to the side past the landside edge of the beam. This patent also covered the peculiar Oliver wheel for a wood beam plow, one arm of the standard being slotted to permit a vertical adjustment, and the other arm flattened on its end and fitted under the beam, where it is held by a hook in a way to permit alignment of the wheel when the beam is shifted. In his patent of Nov. 18, 1873, Mr. Oliver shows a share with a coulter or shin cast as a part of it, to be seated against the front edge of the mouldboard, and also the sloping landside, a feature that has ever since distinguished his plows in the trade. A later patent, issued July 29, 1879. and several succeeding it, covered for Mr. Oliver the process of chilling the nose and cutting edge of a share.

The Patent Office records show many efforts to produce a cast share with a slip or reversible nose, the names of M. M. Bowers and James Oliver appearing oftener than others, and their inventions having a more practical appearance. Mr. Bowers' first patent appears in 1875, and his last in 1880. An important patent was also issued to Mr. Oliver May 8, 1877, for a jointer or coulter holder. It covered a holder rigidly secured to the standard of the plow, and having a slotted plate fitting the under .side of the beam, to which it was held, as well as a slotted arm extending downward, to which the jointer or hanging coulter blade is attached.

.STEEL WALKING PLOWS.

When hardy emigrants from the Old World landed upon our eastern shores to establish settlements, they found that in the land of their dreams, ' 'flowing with milk and honey, ' ' the advantages of free farms were largely offset by the disadvantages of pioneer life, of clearing away the forest, and preparing the soil for the growth of their crops. They had new proof of the fact that the treasures of the .soil can onh' be unlocked by patient and persistent application. The experience of settlers east of the Alleghenies had its counterpart in the pioneer work of those who settled in the vast prairie region of the Mississippi valley, extending a thousand miles westward from Ohio. Where the ax and the "grub hoe " had been needed to subdue the eastern land, the prairie breaking plow, with a share as sharp as the woodman's ax, was required to penetrate the turf of a thousand years' growth and uncover the inexhaustible soil that lay shielded beneath the hard, matted roots of the prairie grasses and weeds. Never in histor}' had such a problem confronted the land-seeking emigrant; but, with ready ingenuity, he forged with blacksmith's tools a new kind of plow to meet the new requirements. The old principles of a beam, handles, a mouldboard, standard and share were all right, but the mouldboard must be made with a long, easy curve, and the share with an edge of the finest steel. In late years, probably early in the "forties," a few curving rods were attached to the share in place of a mouldboard. The plow was made of exceptional strength, for it was the rule to use three to six yokes of oxen in breaking.

With the problem of breaking overcome, it might have been expected that the soil would become tractable and obedient to the touch of its master, but yet another obstacle was to be surmounted. The old wooden plows, and those of cast iron that were coming in from the east, or of "boiler plate" that were made by local blacksmiths, would not scour in the light vegetable mould after it had been stirred up by cultivation during several sea.sons. Various remedies were tried, but without avail, until it was discovered that a high grade of steel would clean itself and do satisfactory work. Who it was that made this discovery it would be difficult to determine, but the first steel plow of which there is any record was made in 1833 in Chicago in the woods near where the Illinois Central station at Twelfth street now stands.

The maker of this plow was John Lane, whose son, the inventor of soft center plow steel, was a witness of the incident, and yet lives in Chicago to tell the interesting story. A rude forge of logs had been built by Mr. Lane, who was a blacksmith, and to a tree that stood by it a bellows was hung.

PERSIAN PLOW.

MEXIC.A.N PLOW.

HEBREW PLOW, BIBLE TIMES.

JAVANESE PLOW

JAPANESE PLOW.

JAPANESE HAND PLOW.

MEXICAN PLOW.

16 AMERICAN AGKICUI.TUR.\L IMPLEMENTS.

An old saw, probably a worn out "crosscut," had been cut and deprived of its teeth, and three lengths of it were used to make a niouldboard of the requisite width, another piece forming the share and an "anchor wing" of iron, the three-cornered shin piece shown in illustration.

For several years it was impossible to obtain anything Vjut saws from which to make a plow, and old ones were gathered up and used until the supply was exhausted, and new ones had to be purchased. In 1830 or 1837 plow makers like I^ane were able to obtain from Pittsburg saw blanks or plates, seven or eight inches wide, in which the teeth had not been cut, two widths being sufficient for a mouldboard. Two or three years later, as nearly as the younger Lane can remember, a special width of steel coula be had from. Pittsburgh, rolled twelve inches wide, and this gave quite a boom to the infant industry

It was a plow with a mouldboard made of old saws that John Deere, then a blacksmith, built in 1837, after he had come west and settled in Grand Detour, 111. The success of the first two which he made led him to build a considerable number, for which he found a ready sale. This again inspired him to higher eflForts, and he ordered from abroad the steel which could not be obtained in this country in the quantitj' or quality he desired, and went still further in his improvements. "The first slab of plow steel ever rolled in the United States was rolled by Wni. Woods at the steel works of Jones & Quigg and shipped to John Deere in IMoline, 111.," says James M. Swank, in his "History of Iron and Steel In All Ages." Mr. Deere removed to Moline from Grand Detour in 1847 and founded the business which is now carried on, perpetuating his name. His partner at Grand Detour, Major Andrus, continued at that place until later years.

Wm. Parlin, another pioneer in the days when the Illinois prairies were settled and broken, worked in much the same way, beginning in 1842, and laid the foundation for what is claimed to be the oldest permanent steel plowfactory in the west. Many other names could be mentioned of men, who, with the black.smith's hammer and sledge, brought forth in limited numbers what was then the most important of all agricultural implements.

But few patents have been issued affecting the form or general appearance of the steel plow, which has always been made on simpler lines than the chilled plow.

The manufacture of steel for plows used on the prairies of the west was revolutionized in 1868, by the invention of "soft center" .steel for mouldboards, shares and landsides. For a time during the infant years of the industry plows were made from a high grade of saw steel, but before long cheaper material was substituted, with the result that plows made of it would not scour in all kinds of soil. Case-hardened German steel was then tried, but it was not generally satisfactory, chiefly because of the difficulty in tempering it imiformly. In 1862 an invention was patented that in some measure paved the way for the introduction of "soft center" steel, but it did not come into general favor, although it is still used successfully by two well-known plow manufacturers. It w-as covered by the patent of Wm. Morri.son, and consisted in the use of a cast steel plate for the face of a mouldboard, share or landside, welded upon and strengthened by a backing

AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

ANOTHER STYLE PRAIEIE BREAKIXG PLOW.

PRAIRIE BREAKING PLOW OF 50 YEARS AGO.

THE FIRST STEEL PLOW, 1833

JOHN LANE'S PATENT, 1868, "SOFT CEN- TER" STEEL.

GILPIN MOORE, JUNE 29, 1875.

GILPIN MOORE'S PATENT, JTNE 29. 1875.

W. L. CASADAY'S PATENT, MAY 3, 1876. W. L. CASADAY'S PATENT, SEPT. 6, 1881.

plate of soft iron. The great defect in it, wliich prevented its general introduction, was its tendency to warp in tempering, which could only be overcome by a tedious and unsatisfactory method of holding it in clamps. The iron and steel would not expand and contract together.

John Lane, above referred to, some time prior to applying for his patent, wliich was i.ssued Sept. IT), 1868, conceived the idea of making a plate of three layers, two outer plates of steel, with a central one of soft iron or steel. When made in this way a mouldboard or other shape would not warp enough to injure the scouring or turning qualities of the plow, as the one layer of steel balanced the other in heating and tempering, and the soft plate in the middle made the combination stronger than any form of .steel that had ever been used.

The importance of this invention can hardly be estimated. On many kinds of prairie soil plowing was done with great difficulty, and in some sections it could not be done at all with the old style plows, except under favorable conditions. The new kind of steel was like oil upon troubled waters, and proved itself worth millions annually to the farmers of the west. Its inventor was content with a royalty of about 3 cents on a plow, yet this amounted to a sum that would have made Jethro Wood one of the wealthiest men of his day.