24 LAND AND LABOR. 



times as much as could one person by the old methods. 

 Then, instead of using the hoe, as did our fathers, in 

 working their corn, where a man found a long and 

 hard day's work in hoeing half an acre, a man or boy 

 will now seat himself upon a cultivator, with a pair 

 of horses before him, and work one acre an hour ; one 

 man now doing with this implement as much as could 

 be done by twenty with hoes. 



When the wheat, or other small grain, was ripe for 

 the harvest our fathers would go into the field with 

 their sickles in their hands, and a long day of hard 

 work would result in one fourth of an acre of grain 

 cut and bound per man. This work is now done by 

 machinery. Pliny, the elder, gives a description of a 

 machine for harvesting grain used by the Gauls. It 

 is supposed to have been in use for several centuries. 

 During the last century several attempts were made 

 to construct machines for reaping, but no one proved 

 a success. Although in the early part of the present 

 century cradles had been to some extent adopted in 

 reaping, the sickle still remained the common imple- 

 ment used for that purpose in Europe and America. 



The first American patent for cutting grain was is- 

 sued in May, 1803, to Kichard French arid J. T. Haw- 

 kins, of New Jersey. Samuel Adams, of the same 

 State, followed in 1805 ; J. Comfort, of Pennsylvania, 

 and William P. Claiborn, of Virginia, in 1811 ; Peter 

 Gaillard, of Pennsylvania, in 1812, and Peter Baker, 

 of New York, in 1814. The next was the machine of 

 Jeremiah Bailey, of Pennsylvania, in 1822 ; a rotary 

 mowing machine, having six scythes attached to a 

 shaft. Four other patents were registered in 1828. 



