CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



winding little rivulet. In the centre of the field 

 is a single tree, a wide-branched white oak, 

 which was probably born before the first col- 

 onists arrived at Jamestown. And in the back- 

 ground, not more than two miles distant, rise the 

 tall and jagged crags of the Blue Ridge, twelve 

 sharp peaks flung high from deep ravines, on 

 which the lights and shades are incessantly 

 changing, a most impressive staging for the 

 first act of the drama of the Reaper. 



This McCormick farm, having 600 acres of 

 land, is now owned by the McCormick family. 

 The whole region has changed but little. Once, 

 and once only, the great noisy outside world 

 surged into this quiet valley, when a Union 

 army under General Butler clattered through it, 

 burning and destroying, and so close to the Mc- 

 Cormick homestead that the blue uniforms could 

 be seen from its front windows. Doubtless, 

 when farmers have time to take a proper pride 

 in the history of their own profession, they will 

 visit the McCormick farm as a spot of historic 

 interest, the place where the New Argicul- 

 ture was born. It is no longer a difficult place 



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