John Deere, (born February 7, 1804, Rutland, Vermont, U.S.—died May 17, 1886, Moline, Illinois), pioneer American inventor and manufacturer of agricultural implements.Apprenticed to a blacksmith at age 17, Deere set up his own smithy trade four years later and, for 12 years, did work in various towns of his native Vermont. In 1837, when 33 years old, he headed west and eventually settled in Grand Detour, Illinois, where he set up a blacksmith’s shop, and sent for his wife and children the following year. He joined in a partnership with Major Leonard Andrus.In his work, Deere found, through the frequent repairs that he had to make, that the wood and cast-iron plow used in the eastern United States from the 1820s was not suited to the heavy sticky soils of the prairies. He began experimenting, and by 1838 he and his partner had sold three newly fashioned plows. He kept experimenting, producing 10 improved plows in 1839 and 40 new plows in 1840. By 1846 the annual output was about a thousand plows.