CYRUS HALLMcCORMICK 



itself, bound it tightly around the middle, mak- 

 ing what was called a sheaf. This was hard, 

 back-breaking work, intolerable when the sun 

 was hot, except to men of the strongest physique. 

 It required not strength only, but skill. Ninety- 

 nine farmers out of a hundred believed that it 

 would always have to be done by hand. "How 

 can it be possible," they asked, "that a machine 

 which is being dragged by horses over a rough, 

 field can at the same time be picking up grain 

 and tying knots?" 



Just then two young farmers near De Kalb 

 came to the rescue 'by inventing a new species of 

 machine. It was neither a Reaper nor a self- 

 binder. It was half-way between the two. It 

 was the missing link. It appeared that an in- 

 ventor named Mann had taken a McCormick 

 Reaper and built a moving platform upon it, 

 in such a way that the grain was carried up to a 

 wagon which was drawn alongside. These two 

 young farmers had bought a Mann machine, 

 and one of them, when he saw it in operation, 

 originated a brilliant idea. 



"Why should the grain be carried up to a 



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