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Midwest farmers faced a challenge in 1837. Their cast-iron plows stuck to the rich, heavy prairie soil. Blacksmith John Deere innovated with a polished steel plow. This design allowed soil to slide off easily. It significantly improved farming eff...
The farmers in the Midwest of America encountered a problem in 1837, which needed a solution that the technology at that point could not meet. The soils of the Midwest prairies were rich, heavy, and thick, but unlike any other soils that had been farmed previously in America. Cast-iron plows, according to the farmers, could hold the soil on the blade, meaning they had to stop periodically to clean it.
The historical records maintained by the Smithsonian Institution reveal that there was a mismatch between the technologies used and the conditions of the environment, meaning that while the farmers possessed the land, they lacked the appropriate equipment to cultivate their lands.
As a consequence, the farmers needed not only to expand their lands but also to improve themselves and come up with new innovations to deal with the observed problem. For instance, John Deere, an Illinois blacksmith, witnessed the problem while performing his work as a blacksmith to repair the farmers' equipment. The issue was not about the farmers refusing to put effort; the issue was the tools.
The Design That Changed How Soil Behaved
John Deere's improvement involved changing the material used in making the tool and its surface, instead of looking at the way things were done in the past and trying to improve on it. For instance, he designed his plow with polished steel so that soil would slide off the blade much more easily than with a regular plow. As trivial as this change may appear, it yielded significant results instantly.
Farmers eventually stopped having to spend time removing soil from the plow because it would not stick to the smooth finish. According to the John Deere Company Archive, this was a crucial change in the design of tools used in farming since the polished steel surface ensured that there was minimal friction between the soil and the blade.
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The National Inventors Hall of Fame also includes this invention as one of the most crucial steps in enabling farming in the Midwest. This was possible by ensuring that the prairie soil could now be handled effectively without the problems that had been associated with it before.
The invention contributed to broader changes in American agriculture, apart from solving a specific agricultural issue. In particular, efficiency in farming enabled its growth, furthered expansion into the Midwest, and helped improve productivity in this sector. According to the Smithsonian Institution, inventions such as those of John Deere contributed to establishing certain settlement patterns because of improved possibilities to farm on the prairies. This resulted from the cumulative impact of the tool. With more efficient plowing, larger tracts of land could be plowed, leading to larger settlements and an economy.
Another important aspect of this innovation was the simplicity of the device and the fact that it did not necessitate a paradigm shift regarding the techniques of plowing. The device simply complemented an existing set of methods and tools used to plow the fields, thus facilitating its adoption and use. Further developments in agricultural technology were based on it, although the essence of the innovation remained the same.
