History of Antebellum American Agriculture
  • Blog

1834                                                                                       The Grain Reaper: The Beginning of the End of Hand Labor in Agriculture

4/15/2014

0 Comments

 
PictureMcCormick's Reaper, Circa 1850
Now back to raw agricultural history, we have Cyrus McCormick’s grain reaper.  Previous to this invention, wheat, barley, and other grains were cut, threshed (removal of non-usable parts), and bundled by hand.  McCormick’s reaper, when pulled by a horse, cut, threshed, and bundled wheat, doing in 2 hours what previously took 3 men to do in a day.
            McCormick’s greatest achievement however, spawned from his success with this machine.  McCormick saw the opportunity provided by new transportation methods, such as railroads, steamboats, and canals, to be able to sell his product to farmers in both the East and the West.  Previously, farmers made their own tools, or only had access to locally made tools, this was a major factor in keeping widespread agricultural technology in the dark ages, as they say.  McCormick saw how transportation could spread new technologies, such as his reaper, to farmers around the country.  And this is exactly what he did.  The massive spike in agricultural technology in the past two centuries, spawned from transportation.  McCormick’s reaper gave him the opportunity to kick start nationwide agribusiness, helping to move agriculture forward.

Sources:

1.      http://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/1820.htm

2.      http://www.lib.niu.edu/1992/ihy921205.html


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Cole Wagner
    History 127 Class Project-UNC Chapel Hill
    *All work is my own, based on sources cited.  Every image and video is cited. 

    Archives

    April 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed


Powered by
✕