CYRUS HALL McCORMICK 



So, in the span of his business life from 

 1831 to 1884, McCormick had seen his coun- 

 try rise from insignificance to greatness, and 

 he had the supreme satisfaction of knowing that 

 his Reaper had done much, if not most, to 

 accelerate this marvellous progress. As we 

 shall see, the invention of the Reaper was the 

 right starting-point for the up-building of a 

 republic. It made all other progress possible, 

 by removing the fear of famine and the drudgery 

 of farm labor. It enabled even the laborer of 

 the harvest-field to be free and intelligent, be- 

 cause it gave him the power of ten men. 



The United States as a whole, had paid no 

 attention to the Reaper until the opening of 

 the California gold mines in 1849. Then the 

 sudden scarcity of laborers created a panic 

 among the farmers, and boomed the sale of all 

 manner of farm machinery. Two years later 

 the triumph of the McCormick Reaper at the 

 London Exposition was a topic of the day and 

 a source of national pride. And in 1852 the 

 Crimean War sent the price of wheat skywards, 



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