INDUSTRIAL REVIEW 195 



a lever that they may be set at the proper angle 

 for best results. 



Harvesting. - - Means of gathering the crop 

 seem to have presented the greatest difficulty, 

 and very radical changes have taken place even 

 within recent times. The fundamental princi- 

 ples involved in the other machinery were applied 

 in the most ancient times. Harvesting methods 

 remained crude and inadequate through all the 

 early centuries. 



The Sickle. - - While the first method of gather- 

 ing grain was probably by pulling it up and break- 

 ing off the heads either by hand or with a crude 

 comb, the use of simple machinery began early. 

 Sickles of bronze and iron have been found among 

 ancient ruins in Europe. Egyptian harvest 

 methods in use long before the Christian era are 

 represented in their ancient paintings. There 

 sickle-like implements were used, and the grain 

 was either cut just below the heads or was cut 

 low down and bound into sheaves. Ancient 

 Chinese, Japanese, Greeks, and Romans also used 

 sickles. The earliest form of sickle seems to have 

 consisted of a slightly curved blade of iron or 

 bronze fastened at one end to a straight handle. 

 Soon the blade became serrated, strengthened, 

 and more curved. The sickle also became lighter. 

 A man cut on an average about an acre a day. 

 Usually the grain was gathered into sheaves and 



