Syracuse Chilled Plows by Fred Hinke

loudoun Heritage Farm Museum Blog All Posts Syracuse Chilled Plows by Fred Hinke December 14, 2020 In a previous blog, “Is a Chilled Plow Very Cold?”, we highlighted the invention of the chilled plow. The Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum has several plows, including plows manufactured by the Syracuse Chilled Plow Company. The company was a major plow manufacturer, employing over 300 people. From their 1900 product catalog, we know they had product distributors in Boston, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Columbus Ohio, Jackson Michigan, Madison Wisconsin, Marshalltown Iowa, and Wheeling West Virginia. In the early 1900s, they shipped over 100,000 plows a year all over the world. Their 1900 product catalogue is seventy-one pages long and includes, in addition to dozens of different types of walking and riding plows, a wide variety of cultivators, harrows, haying tools, road scrappers and over 15 different models of wheelbarrows. This page shows a few of the company’s right-handed and left-handed plows. Syracuse Chilled Plow Company Catalog Syracuse Chilled Plow Company Catalog One of these plows, the Model # 1, is a right hand 2 horse plow; the soil lifted by the plow is turned over and pushed to the right as the plow moves through the field. From the product description in the 1900 catalog, the plow weighs 138 pounds and cuts a furrow 5 to 8 inches deep and 12 to 15 inches wide and is “Unequaled for hard and stony ground”. Our own Syracuse Model # 1, first manufactured in 1878, is displayed in the Work Horse Collection Barn, which is open for special events and by appointment. Right-handed Syracuse Plow Model #1 Right-handed Syracuse Plow Model #1 John Deere also manufactured plows but they didn’t sell very well. So, in 1910, John Deere, looking to expand their product line and sales, purchased the Syracuse Chilled Plow Company. The Farm Museum has a John Deere plow, but the Syracuse name and Syracuse Model # 30 are in raised letters on the backside of the plow moldboard. The plow was almost certainly manufactured in the Syracuse plant which continued in operation until 1955. The Model # 30 is a left hand 3 horse plow, weighs 170 pounds and cuts a furrow 6 to 9-1/2 inches deep and 14 to 16 inches wide. It is also displayed in the Work Horse Collection Barn. John Deere Syracuse Model #30 - Left-handed John Deere Syracuse Model #30 - Left-handed Syracuse, John Deere, and other manufacturers sold a wide variety of both left hand and right-handed plows. But why both left handed and right-handed plows? For unknown reasons, farmers in Indiana and Ohio generally preferred left-handed plows; right handed plows were generally used everywhere else. Manufacturers had a significant incentive to only manufacture right handed plows including a reduction in inventory, spare parts, and tooling. In 1917 plow manufacturers entered into an agreement to discontinue manufacturing left handed plows; an agreement which would almost certainly have been a violation of antitrust law. Naturally, farmers who favored left handed plows rather strongly voiced their displeasure and the agreement died.

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