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Show Replica of Sod-buster Plow Presented JFK to Start 'Year' -MHw a LL ri HLTS Left to right: Secretary Stewart L. Udall, President John Kennedy, Willis G. Scholl, president of the Farm Equipment Institute, Chicago; Chi-cago; and C. R. Gutersmith, chairman of the Public Domain Sesqui-centennial Sesqui-centennial Commission, Washington, D.C. is a national association of the nation's largest farm equipment and machinery manufacturers, many of whom built plows and other equipment used by early American Settlers. The Public Domain Sesquicen-nial Sesquicen-nial Commission is composed of 23 land user and conservation organizations, who have joined to commemorate the sesquicen-tennial sesquicen-tennial of public land administration adminis-tration during 1962. A model replica of the sod-buster sod-buster plow, symbol and basic tool of the early homesteaders, was presented to President John F. Kennedy at the White House recently, launching a year-long national observance of the centennial cen-tennial of the Homestead Act and other land anniversaries of 1962 by the Department of the Interior. A miniature model of the plow vital to the survival of every family migrating westward one century ago, was presented to the President by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall. Accompanying the Secretary were representatives of two national na-tional organizations which are ' commemorating the Interior Department De-partment land anniversaries: Willis G. Scholl, President of the Farm Equipment Institute, Chicago; and C. R. Gutermuth, chairman of the public domain sesquicentennial commission, of Washington, D.C. "Since enactment of the Homestead Home-stead Law on May 20, 1862 more than 270 million acres of the U.S. have come under cultivation as the result of this far seeing legislation," leg-islation," Sec. Udall said. "The sod buster plow was both the symbol and the basic tool of the homesteader, for he had to cultivate cul-tivate to earn title to the land and to survive." The miniature plow presented the Richard Rush Studios, Chicago, Chi-cago, under technical direction of C. L. Dickinson, director of research for the Farm Equipment Institute, aided by specialists , in the Smithsonian Institute and the New York Historical Association Museum in Cooperstown, New York. The Farm Equipment Institute |