reaper

A reaper is a farm implement that reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass, especially wheat. The first documented reaping machines were Gallic reapers that were used in Roman times in what would become modern-day France. The Gallic reaper involved a comb which collected the heads, with an operator knocking the grain into a box for later threshing.

Most modern mechanical reapers cut grass; most also gather it, either by windrowing or picking it up. Modern machines that not only cut and gather the grass but also thresh its seeds (the grain), winnow the grain, and deliver it to a truck or wagon, are called combine harvesters or simply combines, and are the engineering descendants of earlier reapers.

Hay is harvested somewhat differently from grain; in modern haymaking, the machine that cuts the grass is called a hay mower or, if integrated with a conditioner, a mower-conditioner. As a manual task, cutting of both grain and hay may be called reaping, involving scythes, sickles, and cradles, followed by differing downstream steps. Traditionally all such cutting could be called reaping, although a distinction between ''reaping'' of grain grasses and ''mowing'' of hay grasses has long existed; it was only after a decade of attempts at combined grain reaper/hay mower machines (1830s to 1840s) that designers of mechanical implements began resigning them to separate classes..

Mechanical reapers substantially changed agriculture from their appearance in the 1830s until the 1860s through 1880s, when they evolved into related machines, often called by different names (self-raking reaper, harvester, reaper-binder, grain binder, binder), that collected and bound the sheaves of grain with wire or twine..

Hand reaping

Hand reaping is done by various means, including plucking the ears of grains directly by hand, cutting the grain stalks with a sickle, cutting them with a scythe, or a scythe fitted with a grain cradle. Reaping is usually distinguished from '' mowing'', which uses similar implements, but is the traditional term for cutting grass for hay, rather than reaping cereals. The stiffer, dryer straw of the cereal plants and the greener grasses for hay usually demand different blades on the machines.

The reaped grain stalks are gathered into sheaves (bunches), tied with string or with a twist of straw. Several sheaves are then leant against each other with the ears off the ground to dry out, forming a stook. After drying, the sheaves are gathered from the field and stacked, being placed with the ears inwards, then covered with thatch or a tarpaulin; this is called a ''stack'' or ''rick''. In the British Isles a rick of sheaves is traditionally called a ''corn rick'', to distinguish it from a ''hay rick'' ("corn" in British English retains its older sense of "grain" generally, not "maize"). Ricks are made in an area inaccessible to livestock, called a ''rick-yard'' or ''stack-yard''. The corn-rick is later broken down and the sheaves threshed to separate the grain from the straw. Collecting spilt grain from the field after reaping is called '' gleaning'', and is traditionally done either by hand, or by penning animals such as chickens or pigs onto the field.

Hand reaping is now rarely done in industrialized countries, but is still the normal method where machines are unavailable or where access for them is limited (such as on narrow terraces).

Mechanical reaping

A mechanical reaper or reaping machine is a mechanical, semi-automated device that harvests crops. Mechanical reapers and their descendant machines have been an important part of mechanized agriculture and a main feature of agricultural productivity.

Mechanical reapers in the U.S.

The 19th century saw several inventors in the United States claim innovation in mechanical reapers. The various designs competed with each other, and were the subject of several lawsuits..

Obed Hussey in Ohio patented a reaper in 1833, the ''Hussey Reaper''. Made in Baltimore, Maryland, Hussey's design was a major improvement in reaping efficiency. The new reaper only required two horses working in a non-strenuous manner, a man to work the machine, and another person to drive. In addition, the Hussey Reaper left an even and clean surface after its use.

The ''McCormick Reaper'' was designed by Robert McCormick in Walnut Grove, Virginia. However, Robert became frustrated when he was unable to perfect his new device. His son Cyrus asked for permission to try to complete his father's project. With permission granted, the McCormick Reaper was patented by his son Cyrus McCormick in 1834 as a horse-drawn farm implement to cut small grain crops. This McCormick reaper machine had several special elements:

* a main wheel frame
* projected to the side a platform containing a cutter bar having fingers through which reciprocated a knife driven by a crank
* upon the outer end of the platform was a divider projecting ahead of the platform to separate the grain to be cut from that to be left standing
* a reel was positioned above the platform to hold the grain against the reciprocating knife to throw it back upon the platform
* the machine was drawn by a team walking at the side of the grain.
Cyrus McCormick claimed that his reaper was actually invented in 1831, giving him the true claim to the general design of the machine. Over the next few decades the Hussey and McCormick reapers would compete with each other in the marketplace, despite being quite similar. By the 1850s, the original patents of both Hussey and McCormick had expired and many other manufacturers put similar machines on the market.

In 1861, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued a ruling on the invention of the polarizing reaper design. It was determined that the money made from reapers was in large part due to Obed Hussey. S. T. Shubert, the acting commissioner of patents, declared that Hussey's improvements were the foundation of their success. It was ruled that the heirs of Obed Hussey would be monetarily compensated for his hard work and innovation by those who had made money from the reaper. It was also ruled that McCormick's reaper patent would be renewed for another seven years.

Although the McCormick reaper was a revolutionary innovation for the harvesting of crops, it did not experience mainstream success and acceptance until at least 20 years after it was patented by Cyrus McCormick. This was because the McCormick reaper lacked a quality unique to Obed Hussey's reaper. Hussey's reaper used a sawlike cutter bar that cut stalks far more effectively than McCormick's. Only once Cyrus McCormick was able to acquire the rights to Hussey's cutter-bar mechanism (around 1850) did a truly revolutionary machine emerge. Other factors in the gradual uptake of mechanized reaping included natural cultural conservatism among farmers (proven tradition versus new and unknown machinery); the poor state of many new farm fields, which were often littered with rocks, stumps, and areas of uneven soil, making the lifespan and operability of a reaping machine questionable; and some amount of fearful Luddism among farmers that the machine would take away jobs, most especially among hired manual labourers.

Another strong competitor in the industry was the Manny Reaper by John Henry Manny and the companies that succeeded him. Even though McCormick has sometimes been simplistically credited as the ole"inventor" of the mechanical reaper, a more accurate statement is that he independently reinvented aspects of it, created a crucial original integration of enough aspects to make a successful whole, and benefited from the influence of more than two decades of work by his father, as well as the aid of Jo Anderson, a slave held by his family.

Reapers in the late 19th and 20th century

After the first reapers were developed and patented, other slightly different reapers were distributed by several manufacturers throughout the world. The ''Champion (Combined) Reapers and Mowers'', produced by the Champion Interest]group (''Champion Machine Company'', later ''Warder, Bushnell & Glessner'', absorbed in International Harvester, IHC 1902) in Springfield, Ohio in the second half of the 19th century, were highly successful in the 1880s in the United States. Springfield is still known as "The Champion City".

Generally, reapers developed into the 1872 invented reaper-binder, which reaped the crop and bound it into sheaves. By 1896, 400,000 reaper-binders were estimated to be harvesting grain. This was in turn replaced by the swather and eventually the combine harvester, which reaps and threshes in one operation.

In Central European agriculture reapers were – together with reaper-binders – common machines until the mid-20th century.

File:Champion Trade Card, 1875.jpg, Champion reaper, trade card from 1875
File:Adriance reaper, 19th century illustration.jpg, Adriance reaper, late 19th century
File:Boys can use farm machines-1900.jpg, 1900 ad for McCormick farm machines—"Your boy can operate them"
File:Feature. Agricultural School BAnQ P48S1P06852.jpg, Horse-drawn reaper in Canada in 1941
File:Flügelmaschine.jpg, McCormick self-rake-reaper in use in Thuringia (Germany) 1950

References

General and cited references

*

Further reading

* Aldrich, Lisa J. ''Cyrus McCormick and the mechanical reaper'' (2002), for middle schools
online

* Ardrey, Robert. ''American Agricultural Implements: A Review of Invention and Development in the Agricultural Implement Industry of the United States'' (1894
online
a major comprehensive overview in 236 pages.

* Bidwell, Percy and John Falconer. ''History of Agriculture in the Northern United States, 1620-1860'' (Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1925
online
pp 281–305.

* Canine, Craig. ''Dream Reaper: The Story of an Old-Fashioned Inventor in the High-Tech, High-Stakes World of Modern Agriculture'' (Knopf, 1995)

* Casson, Herbert. ''Cyrus Hall McCormick: His Life and Work'' (1909) popular biograph
online

* Casson, Herbert. ''The Romance of the Reaper'' (1908
online
popular history.

* Colman, Gould . "Innovation and Diffusion in Agriculture," ''Agricultural History'' (19680 42#3 pp.173-187. On early reaper adopters in upstate New York in 1850,

* Cronon, William. ''Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West'' (W.W. Norton, 1991).

* David, Paul A. "The mechanization of reaping in the ante-bellum Midwest" in: ''Issues in American economic history : Selected readings'' (Heath,1980) pp. 184–191.
* David, Paul A., "The Landscape and the Machine: Technical Interrelatedness, Land Tenure and the Mechanization of the Corn Harvest in Victorian Britain," in Donald N. McCloskey, ed., ''Essays on a Mature Economy: Britain after 1840'' (Princeton University Press, 1971), pp. 145–205.

* Fishwick, Marshall. "Sheaves of Golden Grain," ''American Heritage'' (Oct 1956) 7#6 pp.80-85. Popular look at how reaper was invented.

* Garraty, Jihn A. ''Right Hand Man: The Life of George W. Perkins'' (1957) forming International Harvester in 1902.

* Grady, Lee. "McCormick's Reaper at 100," ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'' (2001) 84#3 pp.10-20. Looks at the marketing of agricultural equipment 1831 to 1931.
* Hirsch, Arthur. "Efforts of the Grange in the Middle West to Control the Price of Farm Machinery, 1870–1880." ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'' 15 (1929): 473–96.

* Holmes, Heather. "The Diffusion of Labour-Saving Technology and Technological Innovations: English Reaping Machines in Scotland 1850 to 1910." ''Folk Life'' 53.2 (2015): 89–121.
* Hounshell, David A. ''From the American system to mass production, 1800--1932.'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984) esp. "The McCormick Reaper Works and American Manufacturing Technology in the Nineteenth Century" pp 153–188
online

* ; a standard scholarly history.
**
* Kline, Ronald. ''Consumers in the Country: Technology and Social Change in Rural America'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).
* Kramer, Helen. "Harvester and High Finance: Formation of the International Harvester Company." ''Business History Review'' 38 (1964): 283–301
online
* Lerner, Eugene. "Investment Uncertainty during the Civil War: A Note on the McCormick Brothers." ''Journal of Economic History'' (1956) 16#1: 34–40.

* Lyons, Norbert. ''The McCormick Reaper Legend: The True Story of a Great Invention'' (2008);

* McCormick III, Cyrus Hall. ''The Century of the Reaper'' (1933), popular histor
online

* McClelland, Peter. ''Sowing Modernity: America's First Agricultural Revolution'' (Cornell University Press, 1997); wide-ranging history of major farm tools in Europe and U.S.

* Marsh, Barbara. ''A corporate tragedy : the agony of International Harvester Company'' (Doubleday, 1985)
online

* Olmstead, Alan L. "The Mechanization of Reaping and Mowing in American Agriculture, 1833–1870" ''Journal of Economic History'' (1975) 35#2 pp. 327–352 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700075082

* Olmstead, Alan and Paul W. Rhode, “Beyond the Threshold: An Analysis of the Characteristics and Behavior of Early Reaper Adopters.” ''Journal of Economic History'' 55#1 (1995): 27–57. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700040560

* Ott, Daniel Peter. “Producing a Past: McCormick Harvester and the Producer Populists in the 1890s,” ''Agricultural History'' 88#1 (2014): 87–119
online
* Ott, Daniel P. ''Harvesting History: McCormick's Reaper, Heritage Branding, and Historical Forgery'' (U of Nebraska Press, 2023).
* Ozanne, Robert. ''A Century of Labor-Management Relations at McCormick and International Harvester'' (U of Wisconsin Press, 1967).
* Pomfret, Richard. "The Mechanization of Reaping in Nineteenth-Century Ontario: A Case Study of the Pace and Causes of the Diffusion of Embodied Technical Change." ''Journal of Economic History'' (1976) 36#2 pp.399-415.
* Queen, George S. "The McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Russia, ''Russian Review'' (1964) 2#23 pp.164-181. Reaper had as major impact on Russian farming, 1858 to 1917.

* Quick, Graeme R., and Wesley F. ; Buchele. ''Grain Harvesters'' (American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 1978)

* Rikoon, J. Sanford. ''Threshing in the Midwest, 1820-1940: A Study of Traditional Culture and Technological Change'' (Indiana University Press, 1988)
online

* Rogin, Leo. '' The Introduction of Farm Machinery in Its Relation to the Productivity of Labor in the Agriculture of the United States during the Nineteenth Century'' (University of California Press, 1931).
* Rosenberg, Emily S. ''Spreading the American Dream: American Economic and Cultural Expansion, 1890–1945'' (1982)

* Shannon, Fred A. ''The Farmer's Last Frontier: Agriculture, 1860-1897'' (1945) pp. 125–148, 393–39
online
* Sklar, Richard. ''The Corporate Reconstruction of American Capitalism, 1890–1916'' (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
* Steward, John, and Arthur Pound. ''The Reaper: A History of the Efforts of Those Who Justly May Be Said to Have Made Bread Cheap'' (New York: Greenberg, 1931), popular.

* Thwaites, Reuben Gold. ''Cyrus Hall McCormick and the reaper'' (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1909
online

*
* Winder, Gordon M. "A trans-national machine on the world stage: representing McCormick's reaper through world's fairs, 1851–1902" ''Journal of Historical Geography'' (2007) 33#2 pp.352-376.

* Woods, Thomas A. ''Knights of the Plow : Oliver H. Kelley and the Origins of the Grange in Republican Ideology'' (Iowa State University Press, 1991).

Primary sources

* Dodge & Stevenson Manufacturing Co. ''Dodge's patent reaper & mower, and self-raker'' (1870), 40-page illustrated guide how to use the machine
online
* Fitch, Charles H. "The Manufacture of Agricultural Implements" in "Report on the Manufactures of Interchangeable Mechanism" in ''1880 Census: Volume 2. Report on the Manufactures of the United States'' (1881) pp. 70–85; detailed statistics of agricultural machines, by city and state for 1880 and previous censuses
online

* Rhode, Robert T. ''Harvest Story Recollections of Old-Time Threshermen'' (Purdue UP, 2001), primary sources

External links: film

* " International Harvester presents The Romance of the Reaper" (25 minute B&W sound film, 1937
online
invention & evolution from 1831 to the 1930s.

External links

{{Commons category multi, Reapers (persons), Reapers (machines)

Agricultural machinery
Agricultural occupations (plant)
Harvest
History of agriculture