A Monster Plow

1895

The Farmer Who Made It Overlooked Some Mechanical Principles.

Few people are aware of the fact that what is very likely the largest single share plow in the world was made in California and is at present on one of the ranches of the Kern County Land company, near Bakersfield. It is not in use, however, but is simply kept as a curiosity in a little yard all by itself.

It is over 15 years since the idea of the plow was conceived by J. Thompson, a ranch foreman. He was tired of preparing a 3,000 acre wheatfield for crops with the ordinary nine or twelve inch plows worked by two horses then in use. He made his calculations very carefully, but not being a mathematician made a great mistake.

He figured that if two horses could pull a 12 inch plow six horses could pull a 36 inch one, and that eight horses could pull a 48 inch one. It seemed natural enough to figure that way when in fact he should have "cubed" the capacity of his 12 inch plow every time he doubled the width of it. A 12 inch plow, when it is pulled the distance equal to its width, displaces one cubic foot of soil, and a 36 inch plow will displace 27 cubic feet instead of 3, as Mr. Thompson figured.

After all the calculations and drawings were made a blacksmith came out from Bakersfield, and in due time the monster plow was ready to go to work in the field. The share was made to cut a 50 inch furrow, and the top of it reached about five feet from the ground. The beam was over a foot thick, and the handles were 10 feet long, but of course did not slope at the same angle as in the ordinary plows. To enable the plow to be turned around easily it was suspended between two 8 foot wheels, on the axle of which was a seat for the driver. It made a huge, ugly contrivance that looked like a nightmare.

When the plow was taken to the field, ten horses were fastened to it. The handles were raised and the horses started, but as soon as the share was about half way into the ground they stopped. More horses were brought out and sunk it a little deeper, but not until 50 had been hitched to the plow did it move through the soil at any sort of speed. At best it moved slowly, and it took four men to hold the handles and make it stay in the furrow.

Horses were cheap in Kern county at that time, and feed cost nothing, so the plow was a little saving after the men had learned how to handle it so it did not cut more than 18 or 20 inches deep. The next season it was tried with oxen, and it took 75 of them to do the work. On the whole, the plow was not a success, and after being tinkered at for a few years was finally discarded and at last given a place in the stable yard, where it could be preserved as a curiosity. — San Francisco Call.

Farming in Mexico

1908

Primitive Methods Still in Vogue in Many Sections

Mexico City. — The most primitive methods of agriculture are still in vogue in many parts of Mexico.

Even upon the farms adjacent to the City of Mexico and other large cities of that country, where it might be expected that modern machinery would have replaced the antiquated implements which have been in use since the time of the Aztecs, the ground is broken by wooden plows drawn by oxen.

These plows are cumbersome in construction and method of operation. The beam is about eight feet long and to it is frequently spliced another beam in order to afford working room for two yoke of oxen. The handle of the plow is an upright curved piece of timber. The plow point is also made of wood and is lashed to the brake-beam by means of thongs of rawhide.

The plowing with this heavy and unwieldy piece of mechanism is frequently done by Indian women. The men pick the easier kind of labor. The plow does little more than scrape the surface of the soil and but for the natural richness of the land and the splendid climate little could be grown where the work is performed by the ancient implement.


Famous Woman Life-Saver

America's bravest woman, in the opinion of the Society of the American Cross of Honor, is Ida Lewis Wilson, keeper of the Lime Rock lighthouse, off Newport, R.I. "Mistress Wilson," as the sailors call her, is declared by the society to have "rendered greater service tending toward the saving of life than any other woman of the country." The society has therefore awarded her a cross of honor. Mrs. Wilson is better known as Ida Lewis, who years ago gained a world-wide celebrity through her many heroic rescues of drowning persons. — Leslie's Weekly.

Novel Snow-Plows — Kurds Use Horses, Charge the Drifts

1878

Novel Snow-Plows

In his recent travels in Asia Minor Captain Burnaby on one occasion, between Erzeroum and Van, found his road blocked by a snow-drift. It was cleared in the following original fashion.

Ordering one of the Persians to make his camels retire about two hundred yards, the Kurd by which the captain was accompanied called twelve of the best mounted of the villagers to his side; then, striking his horse and shouting wildly, he galloped along the track and charged the drift.

"In a second or two," says our traveler, "nothing could be seen but the head on the rider; his steed was entirely hidden from our view. After a few struggles the man backed the animal out of the snow, having made a hole in it some twenty feet long by four wide. The next horseman rode at the place like his leader. Each Kurd followed in succession. They finally forced a passage. It was a wild sight to witness — these Kurds in their quaint head-dresses, and on strong, fine-looking steeds of Turkoman breed, many of them quite sixteen hands high, charging the snowdrift, yelling and invoking Allah; Persians, phlegmatic and still, seemingly not caring a straw about the matter; the lieutenant encouraging the Kurds by cries and gesticulations, but having too great regard for his own safety to gallop at the ridges, and the leading horseman now far in front, his horse apparently swimming through the snow as he slowly burst the barrier."

Man's Head For Sale, Twice Normal Size

1903

Personal and Otherwise

Arthur Jennings, aged 27, a resident of Florence, 0., has negotiated with an Eastern medical institute for the purchase of his head. Jenning's head is almost twice the normal size. According to the informant the price is $1,000 down and an additional $1,000 to be paid to his relatives at the time of his death. His head measures 36 inches in circumference.

After having been lost 33 years, Dr. J. H. Lenow, of Little Rock, is on the eve of recovering a medal which he won in his boyhood at the Kentucky Military institute. The doctor has received a letter from a jeweler in Brownsville, Tenn., Dr. Lenow's former home, saying that the medal had been brought to him by a negro who had plowed it up in a field near town.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 4, 1903, page 4.