INDUSTRY 47 



and patent office records, printer's ink the single wheel reaping and mowing ma- 

 will be wasted in vain in any attempts to chines that found their way upon the 

 win the laurels from the modest Quaker, market subsequent to 1840. 



The necessities that called for these With the practical features proposed 

 machines were the result of the high by a third of a hundred inventors care- 

 hopes of the pioneers of the West, who, fully embodied in machines at the close 

 finding natural garden spots of dimen- of the first third of the century, came the 

 sions greater than the scope of the eye, practical reaping and mowing machine, 

 plowed and sowed more than they could Nearly one-half of the labor of the harv- 

 reap, more than labor could there be est field was dispensed with ; the ring of 

 found to reap. Naturally, then, the first the cradle blade, when whetting after the 

 practical machines of America were in- cutting of every round, soon ceased to be 

 vented where the great Western fields, heard. The sound of the cutting device 

 which, in their ripeness, inspired inven- of the reaper and mower was not so mu- 

 tors. sical, but may be likened to the chuckle 

 On a day, during the harvest of 1833, of one in his ecstasy who has succeeded in 

 a group of farmers and idlers were inter- his accomplishment. The burning sun 

 ested in the tests of a reaper about to be scorched but half as many laborers as be- 

 made. Mr. Hussey's machine was start- fore. The labor of weary ones over the 

 ed, but some disarrangement caused de- hot stove in the crude habitations on the 

 lay. An incredulous young man, strong farms was lessened. The harvest time 

 of arm, picked up the implement of one became less dreaded ; the scarcity of help 

 of the cradlers, and swung it with a became less felt, and the hours of labor 

 broad sweep into the grain, declaring were shortened. Homes became more 

 that that was a kind of a reaper to have, cheerful, for the farmers' wives and 

 Mr. Hussey, though possessed of a quiet daughters, before called from household 

 manner characteristic of the Quaker, felt duties into the burning sun, had now 

 stung and asked the bystanders to help moments that could be devoted to plant- 

 him uphill with his machine. He then ing the rose and vines, 

 guided the machine down it on the run, Reflecting upon those early days, ex- 

 and every straw was laid upon the receiv- periences such as can soon only be called 

 ing platform with the exactness in which by the artist, are brought to mind. In 

 it grew. The machine repaired demon- our imagination we see the troop of harv- 

 strated its ability to such an extent that est hands, arisen from an early breakfast, 

 others were ordered for the following taken after an hour's labor at chores, 

 harvest, and manufactured in a little shop moving to the fields often before the sun 

 on the farm of Judge Algernon Foster, has kissed the dew from the lilies that 

 near Cincinnati, Ohio. beckon them on the way, young women 

 For the harvest of 1834 two machines as well as young men; though with a 

 were made and sold, and from that time hard day's labor before them, they are 

 on have continued to be used up to the chatting as merrily as when gathering at 

 present day, where, as said in the so- school in the winter, when the labors on 

 called manual delivery reapers extensively the farm are not so great. In those days 

 used in Europe, they are found, substan- few children who could walk knew lei- 

 tially as constructed bv him, having added sure. The babe was often taken to the 

 thereto only the finishing touches applied field and a still toddling youngster left in 

 by modern mechanics. charge while the mother bound after the 

 As a mowing machine slight improve- cradlers. It seems as if the expression 

 ments have been made ; the only competi- "hungry as a hired man" must have 

 tor for several years was one produced by originated on these western prairies, for 

 Enoch Ambler | patented in 1834. in these early days five meals a day was 

 A single supporting and driving wheel the rule. About mid-forenoon two boys 

 was used in Ambler's, and a reciprocat- were spared from the field long enough to 

 ing cutting apparatus also, but the spe- go for luncheon, soon to return with a 

 cine construction was not like that of Mr. well-filled basket and water jugs. The 

 Hussey. It came into considerable use, cloth was spread upon the stubble and a 

 and may be considered the prototype of hasty but hearty meal spread. Perhaps 



