Nature and Art, Vol. VIII, No 1, June 1900

<h3><SPAN name="WHEAT_HARVESTING" id="WHEAT_HARVESTING"></SPAN>WHEAT HARVESTING.</h3> <p class="ac">J. F. STEWARD.</p> <p class="ac p2">CHAPTER I.</p> <p>WE HAVE been told, "Ye cannot live by bread alone," which is no doubt true, but aside from the use of animal flesh as food, bread in some form has played the greatest part in sustaining mankind.</p> <p>There have been found, on every continent and every island of the globe, rude stone implements that tell, by form only, of their possible use. We read the story of pre-historic relics largely by comparison with modern things, and hence judge that the crescent-shaped flint implements, serrated upon their inner edge, to be seen in the British Museum and elsewhere, may have been used by the savages as reaping hooks.</p> <p>The natural habitat of wheat must necessarily remain a matter of dispute, for history cannot tell us of the time when the wild grain began to be cultivated by the savages, whose traditions are silent, nor when it was introduced into the various countries.</p> <p>The first harvest scenes depicted are found upon the stones of ancient Egypt, representing slaves with reaping hooks, at their tasks, scenes cut there before the time of Moses&mdash;long before the exodus. In the ruins of Egypt bronze reaping hooks have been found, differing little from those now used for trimming lawn hooks. In the sediment of Lake Neuchatel, in Switzerland, where have been discovered the remains of an ancient and forgotten people, whom we name merely "the Lake Dwellers," wheat and other grains have been found, and also reaping hooks of bronze; and from the bogs of the Scandinavian countries, where, in conformity with religious rites, were thrown prized articles, upon the death of their owners, sickles have been taken.</p> <p>From the time of bronze in Egypt, to the centuries following the dark ages, the reaping hook was probably the only implement used in the harvest.</p> <p>When comes the beginning of the end of barbarism in a nation, then industrial progress germinates, and in proportion as barbarism has decreased, the efforts for improvements in methods adapted to reduce human labor have been successful. The cloud that cast its shadow over Europe during the so-called dark ages, practically suppressed all efforts, and it is only since then that the energies directed to mechanical progress have had a fair field.</p> <p>Following the reaping hook, not many centuries ago, came the scythe for mowing hay. It was but an enlarged reaping hook, so planned as to call into action the entire physical system, however, instead of the mere right arm, and with it a man was able to lay in swath many times more grass than had been accomplished by any previous implement. In America at the beginning of this century, the scythe had been modified so as to adapt it to the cutting of grain, and with it the straw was laid in a neat swath by the man who swung it, ready to be raked and bound by another. This, however, was nothing more than an implement.</p> <p>We read that machines were attempted before the beginning of the present century and are told by Pliny and others of a box-like cart pushed by an ox between rearwardly extending thills, and having a comb at front, adapted to pull the heads from the standing grain. A man walking beside with a hoe-like instrument scraped the heads into the box. It is no marvel that this implement, made by the Gauls as early as A. D. 1, did not come into general use.</p> <p>We also read that a machine was attempted in Hungary during the latter part of the eighteenth century, and that prizes were offered in England for a reaping machine. It is safe for us to consider, however, the efforts of Mr. Gladstone, of England, who, in 1806, produced <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</SPAN></span> a machine adapted to cut grain and deliver it in a swath beside the machine. With what success, we are mainly left to judge by the construction of the machine itself, which embodied many of the valuable elements of the reaping machine that held sway during the second third of the present century, only to be forced into the background by better harvesting methods.</p> <div class="figcenter"><SPAN name="i_093.jpg" id="i_093.jpg"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/i_093.jpg" alt="" /> <div class="caption">GLADSTONE REAPER.</div> </div> <p>In order to give Mr. Gladstone the credit due him, it is proper to say that his reaper, like nine-tenths of the modern harvesting machines, was adapted to be drawn, and not pushed, as the implement of the Gauls was. Its cutting apparatus was extended well to the right, so that the horse drawing it might walk beside the grain to be cut. It was supported upon wheels, one at the outer extremity of the cutting apparatus, and the other substantially in the position now placed in harvesting machines, and his cutting devices were operated by it. His machine was not only adapted to cut the grain, but deliver it at one side in order to make a clear path of travel in cutting the next round.</p> <p>His machine did not come into use, but was patented and thus made public. Whether practical in detail or not matters little, for he left to the world as a legacy the foundation principles of the reaping machine. Those who followed enriched the art only by additions and modifications.</p> <p>A second patent was granted to him covering improvements. His machine might leave the grain in almost a continuous swath or in gavels, which depended only upon the number of raking devices applied to his rotary cutting apparatus.</p> <p>In the patent granted to Salmon, who followed him in 1808, is found a grain receiving platform, differing in no respect from that of the early practical reaper, a cutting apparatus placed at its forward edge, a divider to separate the grain being cut from that left standing, and an orbitally moving rake adapted to remove the grain in gavels to the ground.</p> <div class="figcenter"><SPAN name="i_094a.jpg" id="i_094a.jpg"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/i_094a.jpg" alt="" /> <div class="caption">SALMON REAPER.</div> </div> <p>While it is of actual achievements that we shall mainly write, it is well to say that the actual achievement of the reaping machine was accomplished largely from knowledge given us by those early inventors, and it is proper that we point out precisely what they have taught us, for more than thirty machines have been patented in England and America before the machine of Bell, the Scotch preacher, of 1828, was placed upon the market in England.</p> <div class="figcenter"><SPAN name="i_094b.jpg" id="i_094b.jpg"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/i_094b.jpg" alt="" /> <div class="caption">OGLE REAPER.</div> </div> <p>Kerr, Smith and others added their mite of knowledge, and in 1822 Henry Ogle, an English schoolmaster, invented a reaping machine that was made by a Mr. Brown, and which cut one acre per hour. The trial was so successful that the laborers in the field, fearing the competition of the innovation, mobbed the inventor and maker and broke up the machine. The patent shows its construction.</p> <p>The cutting apparatus of modern harvesting machines is a modified form of shears; in the early machines, shears, pure and simple, were arranged in series before the receiving platform. As cutting devices they operated well, but were objectionable on account of the fact that they did not clear themselves of shreds of straw and grass.</p> <p>Bell's machine may be considered the first practical reaper, because in it was found the essential combination of mechanical <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</SPAN></span> elements, not only of the reaping machine, but largely of the modern self-binding harvester. His machines were so successful that, as late as 1864, they were busy in the harvest fields of England, and laid a swath more perfect than any implement used before them; they were followed by a troop of girls, the like of which is still seen in the fields of those sections of England and Scotland where the modern self-binding harvester has not yet found its way.</p> <div class="figcenter"><SPAN name="i_095.jpg" id="i_095.jpg"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/i_095.jpg" alt="" /> <div class="caption">BELL REAPER.</div> </div> <p>The erstwhile Scotch student, when working behind closed doors on the little farm worked by his father, though inspired by high hopes, little dreamed that he was in any measure laying the foundation for greater results, and few, at the present day, know that one of the most essential elements of the modern self-binding harvester was reduced to practice by that youth who as the Rev. Patrick Bell administered to the spiritual wants of the members of a little flock in Scotland for many years.</p> <p>Two machines, at least, were brought to America, but not until American reapers had been perfected to such an extent as to meet all of the requirements.</p> <p>Bell's machine was pushed before the horses, as modern headers are. Its reel was supported by forwardly reaching arms as now; it had dividers and all essential elements, the only faulty one being the cutting apparatus.</p> <p>The story of his efforts, as told by himself, is interesting. The facts pertaining to the construction of his machine may be found in cyclopedias and in court proceedings. Although America is considered the cradle of this art, we must bow to Bell and others and claim only that which we have accomplished, founded upon the information and machines they left.</p> <p>In the fishing village of Nantucket, on the island of that name, of Quaker parents, a boy first saw light who later became famous because of his inventive talent. In that little village the whaling industry, upon which success in life depended, was extensively carried on. Like other boys the lad, Obed Hussey, took to the sea, but tiring, turned his attention to a machine for reaping grain. He made a model of the machine, and in 1832-1833 constructed a machine which he operated in the harvest fields near Cincinnati, Ohio. He "builded better than he knew," for his cutting apparatus sings his praise in the harvest fields of every continent, and will probably do so until man ceases to exist. It has been modified in various ways, but no material improvement has been made since it left his hands.</p> <div class="figcenter"><SPAN name="i_096.jpg" id="i_096.jpg"></SPAN> <ANTIMG src="images/i_096.jpg" alt="" /> <div class="caption">HUSSEY REAPER.</div> </div> <p>His machine was a combined reaper and mower. He placed his gearing carriage upon two wheels,&mdash;not a mowing machine of the present day is constructed otherwise. He jointed his cutting apparatus to the supporting frame in order that the machine might conform to irregularities of the surface of the ground. Again it may be said not a mowing machine of to-day is constructed otherwise. In order to adapt his machine to cutting grain, a detachable grain receiving platform was applied, and a stand for a raker as well. As "manual delivery reapers" thousands of such machines are made in America and sent to Europe, where the self-binding harvester has not yet won its way.</p> <p>These four things were new:</p> <p>His cutting device;</p> <p>His raker's stand;</p> <p>The cutting apparatus jointed to the gearing carriage; and the</p> <p>Detachable grain receiving platform. Limiting our inquiry to hand raking reapers it is proper to say that this was the culmination.</p> <p>No reaper has ever been made since that time that did not have these elements arranged as he had combined them. In the face of historical facts, court decisions <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</SPAN></span> and patent office records, printer's ink will be wasted in vain in any attempts to win the laurels from the modest Quaker.</p> <table class="sp2 mc w50" title="WHEAT HARVESTING IN THE GREAT NORTH-WEST."> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="3"><span class="ac w100 figcenter"> <SPAN name="i_097.jpg" id="i_097.jpg"> <ANTIMG style="width:100%" src="images/i_097.jpg" alt="" /></SPAN></span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="xx-smaller ac w30"></td> <td class="x-smaller ac w40">WHEAT HARVESTING IN THE GREAT NORTH-WEST.</td> <td class="xx-smaller ac w30">COPYRIGHT 1900, BY<br/> A. W. MUMFORD, CHICAGO.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>The necessities that called for these machines were the result of the high hopes of the pioneers of the West, who, finding natural garden spots of dimensions greater than the scope of the eye, plowed and sowed more than they could reap,&mdash;more than labor could there be found to reap. Naturally, then, the first practical machines of America were invented where the great Western fields, which, in their ripeness, inspired inventors.</p> <p>On a day, during the harvest of 1833, a group of farmers and idlers were interested in the tests of a reaper about to be made. Mr. Hussey's machine was started, but some disarrangement caused delay. An incredulous young man, strong of arm, picked up the implement of one of the cradlers, and swung it with a broad sweep into the grain, declaring that that was a kind of a reaper to have. Mr. Hussey, though possessed of a quiet manner characteristic of the Quaker, felt stung and asked the bystanders to help him uphill with his machine. He then guided the machine down it on the run, and every straw was laid upon the receiving platform with the exactness in which it grew. The machine repaired demonstrated its ability to such an extent that others were ordered for the following harvest, and manufactured in a little shop on the farm of Judge Algernon Foster, near Cincinnati, Ohio.</p> <p>For the harvest of 1834 two machines were made and sold, and from that time on have continued to be used up to the present day, where, as said in the so-called manual delivery reapers extensively used in Europe, they are found, substantially as constructed by him, having added thereto only the finishing touches applied by modern mechanics.</p> <p>As a mowing machine slight improvements have been made; the only competitor for several years was one produced by Enoch Ambler, patented in 1834.</p> <p>A single supporting and driving wheel was used in Ambler's, and a reciprocating cutting apparatus also, but the specific construction was not like that of Mr. Hussey. It came into considerable use, and may be considered the prototype of the single wheel reaping and mowing machines that found their way upon the market subsequent to 1840.</p> <p>With the practical features proposed by a third of a hundred inventors carefully embodied in machines at the close of the first third of the century, came the practical reaping and mowing machine. Nearly one-half of the labor of the harvest field was dispensed with; the ring of the cradle blade, when whetting after the cutting of every round, soon ceased to be heard. The sound of the cutting device of the reaper and mower was not so musical, but may be likened to the chuckle of one in his ecstasy who has succeeded in his accomplishment. The burning sun scorched but half as many laborers as before. The labor of weary ones over the hot stove in the crude habitations on the farms was lessened. The harvest time became less dreaded; the scarcity of help became less felt, and the hours of labor were shortened. Homes became more cheerful, for the farmers' wives and daughters, before called from household duties into the burning sun, had now moments that could be devoted to planting the rose and vines.</p> <p>Reflecting upon those early days, experiences such as can soon only be called by the artist, are brought to mind. In our imagination we see the troop of harvest hands, arisen from an early breakfast, taken after an hour's labor at chores, moving to the fields often before the sun has kissed the dew from the lilies that beckon them on the way, young women as well as young men; though with a hard day's labor before them, they are chatting as merrily as when gathering at school in the winter, when the labors on the farm are not so great. In those days few children who could walk knew leisure. The babe was often taken to the field and a still toddling youngster left in charge while the mother bound after the cradlers. It seems as if the expression "hungry as a hired man" must have originated on these western prairies, for in these early days five meals a day was the rule. About mid-forenoon two boys were spared from the field long enough to go for luncheon, soon to return with a well-filled basket and water jugs. The cloth was spread upon the stubble and a hasty but hearty meal spread. Perhaps <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</SPAN></span> a solitary tree shaded them. So far the harvest scene resembled the picnics we enjoy to-day. In the heat of the day an hour was taken for rest. At mid-afternoon another lunch was served.</p> <p>Then at sunset came the supper, only after which, from early morn, the kitchen stove was permitted to lose its blush; and the milking time, far into the starlight, while the night hawk boomed, and the rest for the day came after bob white and the whip-poor-will had ceased their calls.</p> <p>What a change this century has wrought! One man now accomplishes as much as sixteen did in the early days. The self-binding harvester of to-day, through the reaping machine, was of a growth so slow that the efforts of a third of a century were required before the reaper was driven to the hillsides&mdash;but of this later.</p> <hr> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />