The plow is as American as the Fourth of July. Such famous farmers as Thomas Jefferson and Daniel Webster helped perfect it, and today’s politicians still speak of realigning our national priorities in terms of “swords into plowshares.”

Having spent 39 years in the farm equipment industry, I was fully aware of the fact that new machines aren’t unanimously accepted everywhere immediately. Thank goodness they aren’t, as the factory couldn’t keep up if a deluge of farm equipment tool orders had come from everywhere at the same time.