Cyrus McCormick's invention of the mechanical reaper revolutionized agriculture in the 19th century. In this book, McCormick recounts his experiences developing and promoting the reaper, as well as the challenges he faced from competitors and skeptics. A must-read for anyone interested in the history of farming and technology. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1909. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... INDEX Adams, John, 15 Adriance, John P., 103, 119 Advertisements of Reaper, 54, 81-83, 112, 134 Africa not a wheat-eating country, 242 Agencies established for sale of Reapers (about 1844), 63 Agents, Cyrus H. McCor- mick's plan in regard to, 83, 84, 86 Agriculture, Department of, 87 Albert, Prince, 125, 132 Algeria, 242 Allen, Grant, 205 America, yacht, 131 Amsterdam, 222 Antwerp, no grain stored in, 217; Bourse in, 222; third busiest port in world, 239 Appleby, John F., 115 Argentina, 209, 212, 225, 228 Arkwright, inventor, 53, 131 Armagh massacre of 1641, 22 Athens, mills at, 236 Atkins, Jearum, 106 Augusta County, Virginia, 3 Australia, wheat crop of, 209; legislation against specula- tion in, 225; development of, 228 Australian stripper, 200 Austria in 1809, 4; farm labor- ers received no wages in, 123; climate and wheat pro- duction in, 241 Austrian Emperor decorated Cyrus H. McCormick, 135 Ayrshire, Scotland, 86 B Babylon, 206 Baggage Case, 1862-1885, 100 -102; see also Pennsylvania Railroad Baltic Exchange, London, 221 Baltic, holder of ocean record, 131 Baltimore and Ohio Railway, 49 Baltimore Convention of 1861, 158, 166 Bankers concerned in moving of wheat, 223, 224 Barbary pirates, 4 Barclay, Col. A. T., 40 Barge, invention of, 210 Battleship turret, improver of, 95 Bavarians in the Tyrol (1809), 4 Beagle, H. M. S., Darwin's voyage in, 51 Bear, Henry, 66 Behel, Jacob, 115 Belgian method of reaping, 6 Belgians, King of the, 125 Belgium, legislation against speculation in, 225; con- sumption of bread per capita in, 239, 242 Berlin, 214, 217 Berthelot, 51 Bessemer converter, 17, 49, 69, 210 Bismarck, 136 Black Death in England, 124 Blackie, 1 Blaine, Mrs. Emmons, 183 Blanchard, inventor, 95 Blue Ridge Mountains, 2, 36 Board of Trade, none in Chi- cago w...

For a relatively easier farming compared to the 1700s, thank Cyrus McCormick. McCormick invented the mechanical reaper, which was hailed as a key invention that propelled the US economy forward. The mechanical reaper increased production and even improved the quality of harvests without the additional toll on farmers and harvesters. Read this book today.

Farming across Borders uses agricultural history to connect the regional experiences of the American West, northern Mexico, western Canada, and the North American side of the Pacific Rim, now writ large into a broad history of the North American West. Case studies of commodity production and distribution, trans-border agricultural labor, and environmental change unite to reveal new perspectives on a historiography traditionally limited to a regional approach. Sterling Evans has curated nineteen essays to explore the contours of “big” agricultural history. Crops and commodities discussed include wheat, cattle, citrus, pecans, chiles, tomatoes, sugar beets, hops, henequen, and more. Toiling over such crops, of course, were the people of the North American West, and as such, the contributing authors investigate the role of agricultural labor, from braceros and Hutterites to women working in the sorghum fields and countless other groups in between. As Evans concludes, “society as a whole (no matter in what country) often ignores the role of agriculture in the past and the present.” Farming across Borders takes an important step toward cultivating awareness and understanding of the agricultural, economic, and environmental connections that loom over the North American West regardless of lines on a map. In the words of one essay, “we are tied together . . . in a hundred different ways.”

William Butler Ogden was a pioneer railroad magnate, one of the earliest founders and developers of the city of Chicago, and an important influence on U.S. westward expansion. His career as a businessman stretched from the streets of Chicago to the wilds of the Wisconsin lumber forests, from the iron mines of Pennsylvania to the financial capitals in New York and beyond. Jack Harpster’s The Railroad Tycoon Who Built Chicago: A Biography of William B. Ogden is the first chronicle of one of the most notable figures in nineteenth-century America. Harpster traces the life of Ogden from his early experiences as a boy and young businessman in upstate New York to his migration to Chicago, where he invested in land, canal construction, and steamboat companies. He became Chicago’s first mayor, built the city’s first railway system, and suffered through the Great Chicago Fire. His diverse business interests included real estate, land development, city planning, urban transportation, manufacturing, beer brewing, mining, and banking, to name a few. Harpster, however, does not simply focus on Ogden’s role as business mogul; he delves into the heart and soul of the man himself. The Railroad Tycoon Who Built Chicago is a meticulously researched and nuanced biography set against the backdrop of the historical and societal themes of the nineteenth century. It is a sweeping story about one man’s impact on the birth of commerce in America. Ogden’s private life proves to be as varied and interesting as his public persona, and Harpster weaves the two into a colorful tapestry of a life well and usefully lived.

Harvesting History focuses on the example of Cyrus McCormick’s invention of the mechanized reaper in 1831 to reveal connections between the historical profession and economic power in the competitive harvesting machine industry of the late nineteenth century.

What would become the International Harvester Company, originally was known as the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The McCormicks were one of many who had developed farm machinery, but their company grew due to Cyrus McCormick's attention to building marketing, sales and improved manufacturing. However, one aspect of McCormick Harvesting Machine Company growth that has rarely been acknowledged is the slave labor that built such dynasties in the United States. For McCormick, it was Jo Anderson, an enslaved man, whose genius and hard work helped build the mechanical reaper that would make the McCormicks very wealthy. Cyrus' father, Robert, enslaved Anderson. Together they worked on developing a mechanical alternative to improve farming. Cyrus McCormick wrote of Anderson in his work, The Century of the Reaper: "Jo Anderson was there, the Negro slave who, through the crowded hours of recent weeks, had helped build the reaper...Anderson deserves honor as the man who worked beside him in the building of the reaper. Jo Anderson was a slave, a general farm laborer and a friend." Anderson died sometime in 1888, and did not live to see the success of the machinery he toiled so hard on. Rather, even after the Civil War concluded, Anderson was not able to freely live in Virginia, and remained on the farm where his labor was hired out and he received only a portion of his earnings.