Show Yankee Blacksmith Won Von Fame Faine as the Father of the Steel Plow Although it may be true as the theauthor theauthor author of Folly de- de declares clares that today the thc moldboard plow is the villain of the worlds world's agricultural drama it was not so true a century ago when the pio- pio pioneers pioneers of the Middle West found in its broad expanse of open prairie a sod tough with the toughness of thousands of interlaced roots of the taU tall rank growing grass that was very different from the loose gravel gravel- gravelly ly soil they had known back East It was rich there soil was no doubt about that but there was no drain drain- drainage drainage age and the heavy loam clung to the shod iron moldboard of the plow So the thc pioneer plowman always had to carry a wooden addle with 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 with his paddle But it was only a few min mn- minutes utes until the sticky muck had rolled up on the plowshare like balled snow on a mans man's and the clean clean- cleaning cleaning ing process would have to be repeat repeat- repeated 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 He gave them a plow that would scour itself His name was John Deere and he hc was the Father of the Steel Plow the man that con con- conquered the prairie sod |