In Summary
The existing evidence, I believe, indicates that:
1. The successful prairie plow with a smooth one-piece moldboard and steel share was basically Deere’s idea.
2. The moldboards of practically all of his plows, from 1837 and for about 15 years, were made of wrought iron rather than steel.
3. The success of his plows in the prairie soils depended on a steel share which held a sharp edge and a highly polished moldboard to which the sticky soils could not cling.
4. The importance attached to the steel share led to the plows being identified as steel plows.
5. The correct reconstruction of the 1838 plow, and, by inference, the 1837 plow, is shown in figures 8 and 10, previous reconstructions being wrong primarily in the position and attachment of the handles.
6. The Museum’s John Deere plow (Cat. No. F1111), shown in figures 7 and 9, is a very early specimen, on the basis of a comparison of it with Deere moldboards of 1847 and 1855 and its conformity to Deere’s description of his plows in an 1843 advertisement; and the 1838 date associated with it is plausible.
Footnotes
1 John Muir (1838-1914), The story of my boyhood and youth, Boston, 1913, pp. 227, 228.
2 R. L. Ardrey, American agricultural implements, Chicago, 1894, p. 14.
3 Ibid., p. 16.
4 J. B. Davidson, “Tillage machinery,” in L. H. Bailey’s Cyclopedia of American agriculture, New York, 1907, vol. 1, p. 389.
5 Leo Rogin, The introduction of farm machinery in its relation to the productivity of labor in the agriculture of the United States during the nineteenth century, Berkeley, 1931, p. 33.
6 U. S. National Museum records under accession 148904.
7 Neil M. Clark, John Deere, Moline, 1937, pp. 34, 35.
8 Stewart H. Holbrook, Machines of plenty, New York, 1955, pp. 178, 179. To an inquiry by this author, Mr. Holbrook replied that most if not all of the material about Andrus came from the files of the J. I. Case Company.
9 Photographic copies of partnership agreements between Andrus, Deere, and others are in U. S. National Museum records under accession 148904.
10 Ibid.
11 Ibid.
12 Letter from Burton F. Peek to M. L. Putnam, December 18, 1957, in U. S. National Museum records under accession 148904.
13 Clark, op. cit. (footnote 7), p. 34.
14 E. H. Knight, American mechanical dictionary, Boston, 1884, vol. 3, p. 2033.
15 Henry Disston & Sons, Price list, Philadelphia, 1897, p. 28.
16 Ardrey, op. cit. (footnote 2), p. 166.
17 Ibid., p. 166.
18 James M. Swank, History of the manufacture of iron in all ages..., Philadelphia, 1892, pp. 390, 393.
19 Country Gentleman, 1857, vol. 10, p. 129.
20 Reports on spark test by E. A. Battison, U. S. National Museum, and on metallurgical investigation by A. H. Valentine, Metallographic Laboratory of the Bethlehem Steel Company’s Sparrows Point Plant.
21 For this information I am indebted to Mr. E. A. Battison of the U. S. National Museum staff.
22 Abraham Rees, The cyclopaedia; or universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature, Philadelphia, 1810-1842, vol. 33, under saw.