Mower Review

- How did the pioneers manage to farm without the invention of the steel plow by John Deere?
Give me DETAIL, about how they farmed with the wood plows, that were not efficient with the clay and mudd getting stuck. Then how life changed when john deere created the first STEEL PLOW

A Note that a number of significant improvements in plow design were made by American inventors before Deere, notably by Charles Newbold, David Peacock, and Jethro Wood. However, none of these inventors earned much money or fame from their developments, unlike Deere they tend to be historical footnotes. A lot of Deere's fame is due to the fact that the company he fathered still exists today. The main problem was that great plains farmers were using plows that had been designed and developed for soils common on the Atlantic Coast and in europe. That is, loose, soft, sandy soils high in organic matter. The soils found on the great plains are different. They tend to have less organic material, and lots of heavy, sticky, compacted clay and silt. Plows used before Deere's invention were cast iron. Cast iron is made with moulds made of compacted sand, so it usually has a rough, sand-like surface. When used in sticky clays, friction becomes a serious problem on the rough cast iron surface. A lot more force was needed to draw these plows in the great plains soil, and that extra force tended to make them wear out quickly, or break. Deere first idea was to make the working edge, or plow "share", out of smooth, polished, high quality steel. (Other parts were still made of wood and cast iron which is cheaper.) The polished surface reduced friction. Steel is more wear resistant and much more durable than cast iron which meant his plows lasted much longer, something a farmer can appreciate. He also altered the angle and slope of the share which gave the plow better leverage in the soil. This reduced the force needed to draw the plow.

- What color was the first john deere plow?


A shiny steel color. The plow share was made of a piece of broken steel saw blade at the blacksmith shop in Grand DeTour, Illinois in 1837. The shiny, self-polishing steel share did not adhere to the sticky, gumbo soils of the Midwest like the cast iron shares did! This new tool revolutionized farming.