This principle of standardization marked 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.
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