CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



toiled and sweltered to save the yellow affluence 

 from destruction. They worked by day and 

 by night; and their wives and children worked. 

 But the tragic aspect of the grain crop is this 

 it must be gathered quickly or it breaks down 

 and decays. It will not wait. The harvest 

 season lasts from four to ten days only. And 

 whoever cannot snatch his grain from the field 

 during this short period must lose it. 



Truly, the West needed the Reaper; and 

 McCormick's first plan was to overcome the 

 transportation obstacle by selling licenses to 

 many manufacturers in many States. By 1846 

 he had, with herculean energy, started Fitch 

 & Company and Seymour, Morgan & Com- 

 pany in Brockport, N. Y., Henry Bear in 

 Missouri, Gray & Warner in Illinois, and 

 A. C. Brown in Cincinnati. These manu- 

 facturers, and the McCormick family in Vir- 

 ginia, built 190 Reapers for the harvest of 1846. 

 This was multiplying the business by four, very 

 nearly, but the plan was not satisfactory. 

 Some manufacturers used poor materials; 

 some had unskilled workmen; and one became 



[66] 



