Did you know back in the 1830s, there was a young blacksmith from Vermont, about to make his mark on American history? He moved to Illinois, where farmers were struggling to plow through the thick, rich soil they called gumbo. He tinkered and tweaked and tested until he invented a steel plow that sliced into the prairie as easy as you please. Long before the first tractor, who changed farming forever? John Deere, that’s who. The Polk County Farm Bureau’s Women Committee is celebrating “AG Day” during  Literacy Week. Dianne Davis, Jan McGuinn and Kelly Gay with the Polk County Women’s Committee are visiting schools in the county and reading American Farm Bureau Book of the Year, “John Deere, That’s Who.” They were in Saluda Elementary School on Tuesday. They will be visiting Tryon Elementary, Sunny View and Polk Central later in the week. (Photos submitted by Carmon Collie)