"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. Peacock, 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 associated 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 space, And mark the Day God'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 shine, We yield with grateful hearts to thee; May children's children round thy shrine-- Sons of the brave and free-- With reverent lips pronounce thy name, And build for thee a deathless fame! End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jethro Wood, Inventor of the Modern Plow., by Frank Gilbert