How it began
Richard Bowyer Smith, a blacksmith and maker of agricultural implements, bought farm land with his brother Clarence at Kalkabury, now Arthurton, on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia in about 1872. Tree stumps and limestone in the newly cleared land badly damaged ordinary ploughs. The prototypes were made in the blacksmith shop on the farm, and in 1876 Smith finalized a strong steel plough he called the Vixen. He exhibited it at the Moonta Show in November 1876, where it won a first prize.
How it works
When the plough struck a stump or rock it rode over the top of the obstacle instead of breaking. The frame was weighted and hinged so that the shares fell back into the furrow once the obstacle had been passed. This let a farmer plough land that still held stumps and stone and grow an even crop on it.
How it spread
In 1884 Richard Smith moved to Western Australia and set up a machinery works at Beverley, where he kept producing stump-jump ploughs. Clarence refined the design in South Australia and in 1880 built a factory at Ardrossan that came to employ over one hundred workers. The History Trust of South Australia describes the plough as a major factor in making poor quality land capable of high grain productivity throughout Australia. Thousands of acres were brought under cultivation through its use.
Who pushed back
Acceptance was slow even after the Farmers' Weekly Messenger wrote that the plough would cause a complete revolution in tilling uncleared land. The patent was registered in 1877 but lapsed after a year because the family was in severe financial straits. Credit is also contested between the brothers. Clarence, who was apprenticed to Richard, drew the plans in 1876 and worked continuously on the prototype, and support for him as the inventor is strong.
