ked a great advance. The farmers by this time were
forgetting their former prejudices, and many ploughs were sold. Though
Wood's original patent was extended, infringements were frequent, and he
is said to have spent his entire property in prosecuting them.

In clay soils these ploughs did not work well, as the more tenacious
soil stuck to the iron moldboard instead of curling gracefully away. In
1833, John Lane, a Chicago blacksmith, faced a wooden moldboard with an
old steel saw. It worked like magic, and other blacksmiths followed suit
to such an extent that the demand for old saws became brisk. Then came
John Deere, a native of Vermont, who settled first in Grand Detour, and
then in Moline, Illinois. Deere made wooden ploughs faced with steel,
like other blacksmiths, but was not satisfied with them and studied and
experimented to find the best curves and angles for a plough to be used
in the soils around him. His ploughs were much in demand, and his need
for steel led him to have larger and larger quantities produced for
him, and the establishment which still bears his name grew to large
proportions.

Another skilled blacksmith, William Parlin, at Canton, Illinois, began
making ploughs about 1842, which he loaded upon a wagon and peddled
through the country. Later his establishment grew large. Another John
Lane, a son of the first, patented in 1868 a "soft-center" steel plough.
The hard but brittle surface was backed by softer and more tenacious
metal, to reduce the breakage. The same year James Oliver, a Scotch
immigrant who had settled at South Bend, Indiana, received a patent for
the "chilled plough." By an ingenious method the wearing surfaces of the
casting were cooled more quickly than the back. The surfaces which came
in contact with the soil had a hard, glassy surface, while the body
of the plough was of tough iron. From small beginnings Oliver's
establishment grew great, and the Oliver Chilled Plow Works at South
Bend is today one of the largest and most favorably known privately
owned industries in the United States.

From the single plough it was only a step to two or more ploughs
fastened together, doing more work with approximately the same man
power. The sulky plough, on which the ploughman rode, made his work
easier, and gave him great control. Such ploughs were certainly in
use as early as 1844, perhaps earlier. The next step forward was to
substitute for horses a traction engine. Today one may see