Show Yankee Blacksmith Won Fame as the Father of the Steel Plow Although It may be true as ns the I author of Folly FoUy deS de- de S flares dares that today the moldboard plow Is the villain of the worlds world's 2 2 agricultural drama it was not so soe true kue e a century ago when the pioneers plotters plo plo- seers of the Middle West found in r its broad expanse of open prairie co a sod sod tough with the toughness of ofIk k Ik thousands of interlaced roots of the theIn nj In j tall U rank growing growing grass that was wasI I f ve ery iery ry different from the loose gravel gravel- Iv 1 7 soil soU they had known back East f 1 It was rich soil there soil there was no doubt about that that but but there was no drainage drainage drain drain- age and the heavy loam clung to the shod iron-shod moldboard of at the plow So the pioneer plowman always alway had to carry a wooden paddle with I him Then when his straining oxen couldn't pull forward another step hed he'd have to jerk the plow out of the ground and clean it off ofT with his paddle But it was only a few Cew minutes minutes min min- utes minutes until the sticky muck had rolled like balled baIled snow up on the plowshare on a mans man's booth eel and the cleaning cleanIng cleaning clean- clean Ing process would have to be repeated repeat repeat- ed all over again Under such conditions it looked as though these prairie lands rich as they were could never be farmed satisfactorily Then in 1837 a Yankee blacksmith changed all that t. t He gave them a plow that would scour itself His name was John Deere and he was the Father of the Steel Plow the man that conquered conquered con the prairie sod |