Today in IP: On this day in 1865 patent #46,454 was issued to John Deere for advances he made to the plow that significantly contributed to the growth of the United States. You may be wondering how can a simple tool like a plow make such an impact. Well to get that answer you have to go back to 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase. Much of the land in this purchase included the Great Plains states where the flat land was ideal for farming but for the soil. The soil in the Great Plains states were wetter and more clay like than the soil in the eastern states. As a result Great Plains farmers had a difficult time plowing their lands as every few feet the sticky soil clinging to their plows would have to cleaned. This hardship discouraged people from moving westward to start farms of their own and the lack of settlements in the Great Plains area made travel to western states such as California challenging. John Deere, a blacksmith, came to the Great Plains in 1836 and learned of the problem farmers were having plowing their land. Mr. Deere soon set about redesigning the plow so that the soil would not stick and a year later, 1837, he began to sell his plow to local farmers who quickly spread the word. Less than 20 years later Mr. Deere was selling over 13,000 plows a year and his plow became known as “The Plow that Broke the Plains" as many farmers moved to the Great Plains to take advantage of government land grants. Following the farmers came the settlements and the transportation infrastructure to support it. Without Mr. Deere’s plow westward expansion would have been much slower. Mr. Deere died a millionaire in 1886 but his legacy lives on in the company he started, Deere & Company, whose green and gold farming equipment are a common sight on the land his plow once ruled.
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