CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



had said, "I know of no pursuit in which more 

 real and important service can be rendered to 

 any country than by improving its agriculture." 

 But it was generally believed that the task was 

 hopeless; and any effort to encourage inventors 

 had hitherto been a failure. An English society, 

 for instance, had offered a prize of one hundred 

 and fifty dollars for a better method of reaping 

 grain, and the only answer it received was from 

 a traveller who had seen the Belgians reaping 

 with a two-foot scythe and a cane; the cane 

 was used to push the grain back before it was 

 cut, so that more grain could be cut at a blow. 

 As to whether or not he received the prize for 

 this discovery is not recorded. 



The city of New York in 1809 was not larger 

 than the Des Moines of to-day, and not nearly so 

 well built and prosperous. Two miles to the 

 north of it, through swamps and forests, lay the 

 clearing that is now known as Herald Square. 

 There was no street railway, nor cooking range, 

 nor petroleum, nor savings bank, nor friction 

 match, nor steel plow, neither in New York 

 nor anywhere else. And the one pride and 



