Back

Agricultural Implements

An interesting comparison might be drawn between the conveniences which now make the life of a farmer comparatively an easy one, and the almost total lack of such conveniences in early days. A brief description of the  accommodations possessed by the tillers of the soil will now be given. Let the children of such illustrious sires draw their own comparisons, and may the results of these comparisons silence the voice of complaint which so often is heard in the land. The only plows they had at first were what they styled “ bull plows.” The mold-boards were generally of wood, but in some cases they were half wood and half iron. The man who had one of the latter description was looked upon as something of an aristocratic. But these old “ bull plows “ did good service, and they must be awarded the honor of first stirring the soil of Monroe county, as well as that of the oldest counties of the State. The amount of money which some farmers annually invest in agricultural implements would have kept the pioneer farmer in farming utensils during a whole lifetime. The pioneer farmer invested little money in such things, because he had little money to spare, and then again because the expensive machinery now used would not have been at all adapted to the requirements of pioneer farming. The bull plow” was probably better suited to the fields abounding in stumps and roots than would the modern sulkey plow have been, and the old-fashioned wheat cradle did better execution than would a modern harvester under like circumstances. The prairies were seldom settled till after the pioneer period, and that portion of the country which was the hardest to put under cultivation, and the most difficult to cultivate after it was improved, first was cultivated; it was well for the country that such was the case, for the present generation, familiarized as it is with farming machinery of such complicated pattern, would scarcely undertake the clearing off of dense forests and cultivating the ground with the kind of implements their fathers used, and which they would have to use for some kinds of work.